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IMPEESSIONS 



■rU 



EXPERIENCES 



1 



W#T INDIES AND NORTH AMERICA 



IN 1849. 



ROBEET BAIRD, A. M. 



' Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare curruntJ 




PHILADELPHIA: 

LEA & BLANCHARD, 

1850. 



^-s$^ 



^ 



Flfcl\ 



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TO HIS EXOEtLENOT 

JAMES MAGAULAY HIGGINSON, 

GOVERNOR-GENERAL AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 

IN AND OVER THE ISLANDS OF 

ANTIGUA, MONTSERRAT, BARBUDA, SAINT CHRISTOPHER, NEVIS, 

ANGUILLA, DOMINICA, AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, 



€^xs Wuk, 



THE RESULT OF NOTES COMMENCED WHEN ENJOYING HIS SOCIETY 
AND HOSPITALITY IN GOVERNMENT HOUSE, ANTIGUA, 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR, 



PREFACE. 



had it not been for the opinion entertained by myself^ 
that I would succeed in making my Work instructive 
or amusing, or perchance both. So far, therefore, from 
being entitled to disarm criticism by pleading, in de- 
fence of publication, a compliance with the solicitation 
of others, I am bound in truth to declare, that my 
chief motive for giving this Work to the press, is the 
hope, that a perusal of my ^' Impressions and Experi- 
ences," in the course of a voyage not frequently under- 
taken, will prove pleasant to many, and profitable to 
a few — and, more particularly, to those who may, like 
myself, be advised or induced to visit the West Indian 
Archipelago under medical advice. Add to this, that I 
have not been able to find, among more recent publica- 
tions, one which professes to give anything approaching 
to what I would, call a domestic portraiture of the 
Islands and Islanders of the West Indian Archipelago, 
in their present state or condition. No doubt Mr. 
Coleridge's spirited little volume, published first in 
1826, is somewhat of this character; but Mr. Cole- 
ridge's visit to the Islands of the West Indies was 
made in 1825, ere steam had wrought its marvels — 
and, moreover, his visit was confined to a very few of 
the Islands. Not only so — Mr. Coleridge's narratives, 
graphic and amusing as they are, have but little appli- 
cation to the present condition of West Indian society. 
They were written with exclusive reference to a state 
of slavery; and they are written in a strain of enthu- 
siastic description which, eloquent and in the main 
accurate as they undoubtedly are, has caused them to 
be regarded in the eyes of many, as extravagant, if 



PREFACE. 7 

not incredible. In such and similar considerations 
has originated my desire to publish this Work; and I 
think I shall have exhausted my confessions on this 
subject^ when I add, that I am certainly not a little 
influenced by a desire to repay, in part, a debt of 
gratitude I owe to my many dear friends, not only in 
the West Indies and in Canada, but in the 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

by adding my tribute to the many beauties of that 
land, and the many excellencies of its inhabitants ; 
and, by simply speaking of both as I found them in- 
crease, if I can, even by a little, between two great 
nations, identified in origin, in langua-e, and in duty, 
that mutual knowledge of each other, the progress of 
which is doing so much to promote the cause of peace 
and civiHzation. 



CONTENTS 



Page 
Preface, 5 

CHAPTER I. 
Explanatory and Introductory, 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Leaving Home— Leaving England — Southampton and Bay— Sea Voyages— At 
Sea— FeUow -Passengers— Making Land— Porto Santo— Madeira— Tropics 
and their characteristics— Barbadoes— Tropical Scenery. 15 

CHAPTER III. 

Leave Barbadoes— St. Lucia — Martinique — Volcanic phenomena — A Shoal of 
Porpoises — Tropical Nights — Island of Dominica — Guadaloupe — Antigua — 
English Harbour, Antigua — Alone in a Foreign Land — Peculiar interest 
attaching to Antigua— Capital of Antigua — Island of Montserrat — Islands of 
West Indian Archipelago as places of sanitary resort — Comparative view of 
West Indian annoyaaces — Fig-tree Hill, Antigua — Sunset at St. John's— 
Orange Valley — Height of HiUs, and clearness of atmosphere — Church in 
Antigua— Soup House in St. John's— Earthquake of 1843— Hurricane of 
1848 — Negroes, and their sayings. 26 

CHAPTER IV. 

Leaving Antigua^St. Christopher's— Climate and Scenery— Central Pathway 
and Spooner's Level— Visit to Nevis— Natural Baths— Lodging House of 
Nevis— Courts of Law— Trial by Jury— Monkey Hill— Carib Stone- Hurri- 
canes and Earthquakes — Islands of St. Eustatia, St. Bartholomew, Saba, 
Tortola, Boriquen or Crab Island — Arrival at St. Thomas, 



CHAPTER V. 



55 



j St. Thomas — Town of St. Thomas— Appearance from Sea— View from Sum- 
mit of Mountain — Adaptation for Piracy — Visit to Santa Cruz — Koads and 
Palm-Trees in Santa Cruz— Christianstadt— Insurrection of 1848, and eman- 
cipation of Slaves — Reflections on Former Prosperity, Px-esent State, and 
Future Prospects of Santa Cruz— Return to St. Thomas, 7e 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Leaving St. Thomas — Island of Porto Eico — Past Statistics of Population- 
Saint Domingo — Past History and Present Position — Late Transposition in 
Form of Government — ^Jamaica — Cruelty of Spaniards to Aborigines — Retri- 
butive Justice — General Characteristics of Jamaica Scenery — Visit to Port 
Royal Mountains — Their Scenery — Fire-Flies — CoflPee-Plantation and Cof- 
fee-Plant — St. lago de la Vega — Statue to Rodney — Bog Walk — Jamaica 
as a place of Sanitary Resort — Creole Beauty — Port Royal, 81 

CHAPTER VII. 

Leave Jamaica — Sail to Cuba — Bay and Town of Havanna — General Aspect 
of Havanna — Volante or Quitrin — Objects of Interest in Havanna — Grave 
of Columbus — Slave Trade of Havanna — Franciscan Church and Anecdote 
— Judicial System and Laws of Cuba — Captain General — Cuban Statistics — 
Plaza de Armas — Paseo Isabel — Theatre Tacon — Campo-Santo — Public 
Baths of Havanna — Beauty of Cuban Ladies — Cafes — Hotels — Public Press 
in Cuba — Cuartado System — Domestic and Field Labourers, &c. Leave 
Cuba, 99 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The British West Indian Colonies — their Claims — Position and Prospects, • • • -132 

CHAPTER IX. 

Sail from Cuba to Mobile — Mobile — Sail to New Orleans — Fellow-Travellers, 
and their Habits and Feelings, particularly towards England — American 
Steam-Ships — New Orleans — The Crevasse and the Levee — The Mississippi 
from New Orleans to Cairo — Mouth of the Ohio — Louisville, Kentucky — Sail 
to Cincinnati, 180 

CHAPTER X. 

State of Ohio — City of Cincinnati — System of Education — Pork Trade of Ohio 
— Railway to Sandusky — American Democracy — Sandusky City — Lake 
Erie — City of Cleveland — Buffalo — Niagara Village — Falls of Niagara and 
their Concomitants, 207 

CHAPTER XL 

Leave Niagara — Lewistown and Queenstown — Brock's Monument — Lake On- 
tario — Oswego — Kingston — Ogdensburg and Prescott — St. Lawrence and its 
Scenery — Thousand Islands — Shooting the Rapids — Lachine — Lachine Rail- 
way and Monti'eal — Quebec and its citadel, &c. — Falls of the Montmorenci 
— Return to Montreal — Public Feeling in Canada, and its Causes, 230 

CHAPTER XII. 

Leave Montreal — La Prairie — Railway to St. John's — Steamer Burlington — 
Lake Champlain — Lake George — Whitehall — Rail to Saratoga — Saratoga 
and its Springs— Railway to Troy and Albany — Albany — Hudson River — 
Arrival at New York, • •' 249 

CHAPTER XIII. 

City and Harbour of New York — English Navigation Laws — Population and 
ProgTCss of New York — Comparative View of New York and Glasgow in 
Scotland — Omnibusses in New York — Croton Water- Works — Opera House 
Riot in 1849 — Summary of Memorabilia of New York — Routes from New 
York to Philadelphia — Philadelphia, &c. — Girard College — Routes from 
Philadelphia to Baltimore — Baltimore — Monument to Washington — Railway 
to Washington — Capital, and its Capitol, 25;^ 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Leaving Washington — Eeturn to New York wa Baltimore and Philadelphia 

New York — Eoute to Boston — New England Railways — The Pilgrim Fathers 
I — City of Boston — Harvard University — Cemetery of Momit Auburn — 
Town of Lowell, its Original Foundation, Rise and Progress, — Leaving 
America, • 93 

CHAPTER XV. 

Americans and their Characteristics — American Slavery — International Copy- 
right — Emigration to North America in General, and to the United States 
in Particular, 308 

CHAPTER XYI. 

Leave Boston and Halifax — Voyage Home — Icebergs — Shoal of Whales — Ex- 
istence of Sea-Serpent — Old England, 341 

Appendix. • • • • • '347 



THE WEST INDIES 



CHAPTER I. 

EXPLANATOEY AND INTRODUCTORY. 

" Utinam tam facile vera invenire quam falsa convincere." 

TULLT. 

It is not because it is imagined that it is a circumstance of the 
slightest consequence in itself, or one likely to affect, in any way, the 
reception which this book may receive at the hands of that august 
and numerous body whom it is customary to designate ^' a liberal 
public/' that I set out with the mention of these two facts — Firstj 
That the journeyings which have given cause to these notes were 
undertaken solely on account, or in pursuit of health ) and, Second, 
That, in selecting the AVest India Islands as my place of temporary 
sojourn, I was not influenced by any considerations of business or by 
any ties of connection. To these islands I went solely because, after 
medical consultations; numerous and erudite, it was supposed that 
the climate of these 

" Beautiful islands ! where the green 
Which Nature wears was never seen 
'Neath zone of Europe ; where the hue 
Of sea and heaven is such a blue 
As England dreams not ; where the night 
Is all irradiate with the light 
Of starlike moons, which, hung on high, 
Breathe and quiver in the sky," 

was likely to have a salutary and a sanitary effect on the disease or 
diseases under which my corporeal frame was supposed to labour ! 
And I took the westerly route readily, because, as the resident of a 
city deeply interested in colonial matters, I had for a long time heard 
and read much of West India distress, without being able to arrive 
at very definite or tangible notions as to its nature, causes, or extent. 
But, if the mention of these facts be not important to the success 
of the book, " Why," the reader may ask, " am I treated or troubled 

2 



14 ROUTE TRAVELLED. 

with these personalities at all T' The question^ good reader, is a fair 
one, and will be honestly answered. I have no interest in recording 
the facts, but you have an interest in knowing them, and a right to 
know them. You have honoured me so far as to commence the 
perusal of my work, (whether you intend to finish it or not is another 
question entirely ;) and, without prying into matters which concern 
only your bookseller and yourself, I take it for granted that you have 
paid for the privilege of perusal, such as it is. You have therefore 
a right to know everything that can throw light upon the bias or 
honesty under or with which my book has been penned. Now, it is 
well known that the object for which a man sees, or goes to see, will 
greatly affect the medium through which he sees, and the lights under 
which he afterwards represents the objects seen. Of no part of the 
globe does this more truly hold good than of the British colonial 
possessions in the West Indies. Therefore it is that I have deemed 
it right thus, in the outset, to chronicle the fact that, in my voyagings 
to the West, I went neither as a friend of slavery nor as an emanci- 
pationist ; I journeyed neither as a Protectionist, nor as a Ministe- 
rialist, nor as a Free-trader. 

The route undertaken and accomplished was from England to Bar- 
badoes, by way of Madeira, and thence, in a north-west direction, 
through the numerous English, French, Danish and Spanish islands 
of the West Indian Archipelago. Thereafter from Cuba across the 
Gulf of Mexico to Mobile and New Orleans, up the Mississippi and 
the Ohio to Cincinnati, northward to the great American lakes into Ca- 
nada — and from Canada, by the Hudson river to New York and the 
other great cities of the American Union. Any more minute detail 
of the lines of travel has been rendered unnecessary by the note of 
contents prefixed to each chapter, for the guidance and convenience 
of the reader. 

I have only to add, that, throughout, it has been my main object 
to vindicate the humble title I have selected for my book, by chroni- 
cling incidents exactly as they occurred, and things precisely as they 
are ; and, whatever reception my descriptions may meet with, I have 
received from them much pleasure in the minute record kept by me 
of my daily experiences, and in the excerpting from these copious 
though rough notes, such portions of them as I have thought worthy of 
the honour, and likely to excite attention and create interest in the 
minds of general readers. 



LEAVING HOME. 15 



CHAPTER IT. 

" Adieu ! adieu ! my native shore "* 

Pades o'er the waters blue." — Byuon. 

" Ille robur et ses triplex 
Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci ' 
Commisit pelago ratem." — IIoeace, 

In one of the above mottoes, the Augustan poet has chronicled, 
in immortal verse, the hardihood of the most ^' ancient mariner." 
But, whatever the courage of the sailor who first committed a frail 
bark to any sea ; or, whatever the courage of the great Columbus, 
who, anticipating Columbia over the distant wave, first stretched his 
sails to cross the broad Atlantic in search of a New World ; I fear 
steam and its triumphs have destroyed, for the modern traveller, all 
claims to any unwonted degree of courage, when he intrusts his per- 
son to the tender mercies of the uncertain sea. Such, at least, were 
my "impressions and experiences," ere I had been a week on board 
the noble steam-ship, the Great Western. At first, like all landsmen, 
I found myself not merely cabined, (that I had bargained as well as 
paid for,) but " cabined, cribbed, and confined," in the six or eight 
feet square, facetiously denominated a " state room." Lucus a non 
lucendo. Like those of many other persons, my notions of steam- 
ship accommodation had been somewhat formed from the pictorial 
representations exhibited in agents' olfices, and from the highly 
coloured pictures of the comforts of a life at sea drawn by ex- 
perienced voyagers, who, having frequently made the voyage, had 
lost their sense of the disagreeables in their appreciation of the beau- 
ties which it opened to their view, and in the health which it imparted 
to their frame. But it was only at first that the dispelling of the 
delusion left a feeling of disappointment. Ere Porto Santo was 
announced to be in sight, (although nothing more than a seeming 
cloud was at first visible,) I had become perfectly reconciled to my 
cabin home, and quite prepared to vindicate its spaciousness, salubrity, 
and convenience, against the sneers of any Exquisite who might 
erroneously imagine an extensive bedroom and separate dressing- 
closet among the essentials of human happines^. But to begin at 
the beginning. 

It was on a miserably wet cold morning, in the very beginning of 
the month of January 1849, that, after bidding a fond farewell to 
those near and dear to me, I started from the commercial metropolis 
of Scotland, per rail, to London. My spirits were in keeping- with 
the weather. Indeed, I envy not the man who, whatever his pros- 



16 - LEAVING ENGLAND. 

pects of enjoyment may Ibe^ can leave his native land and a liappy 
home for a far-off country, without deep and painful feelings of re- 
luctance and regret. When, therefore, I started on my journeyings, 
I was not much in the vein for " pencillings by the way;" and, even 
had it been otherwise, the journey from Glasgow to London is too 
well known, and (thanks to the excellence of our railways) too 
rapidly travelled, to require, or indeed to justify, any descriptive re- 
marks other than those of the Guide Books. The only thing that 
occurs to me to note, is the rapidity with which the transit is now 
effected. Eleven o'clock at night found me in London, having 
travelled the four hundred and twenty miles, or thereby, in twelve 
and a half hours. Similar remarks apply to the journey from Lon- 
don to Southampton, performed on the afternoon of the immediately 
succeeding day. At the end of this trip, I bade farewell, for a time, 
to English railways, not then knowing, that notwithstanding all the 
vaunting of our Transatlantic friends, I was not to see anything of 
the kind — anything like them, or half so good, so swift, so comfort- 
able, or so safe — till I should again put foot in old England. At 
Southampton I sojourned at the Polphin Hotel; and as I perceive 
it is the good custom of more experienced tourists to record for the 
guidance and benefit of their ^^ successors in office," the hostelries in 
which comforts and condiments are to be found, I here pledge my 
veracity to the fact that the Dolphin Hotel in Southampton — albeit 
that, during my sojourn there, the weather was bitterly cold, and that 
the house is more adapted for a summer than a winter residence — is 
a hostelry of exceeding comfort and excellent cooking. In South- 
ampton and the neighbourhood are to be seen various objects and 
institutions of interest and attraction, which will amply repay a visit, 
but, as they are fully chronicled in Mr. Osborne's book, and in other 
Guide Books, and as my stay in Southampton was but brief, I will 
leave those to other pens, and proceed at once on board the good ship 
Great Western, which was to convey me to Madeira, en route for the 
West Indies. The Great Western lay out at anchor in the middle 
of the arm of the sea, termed (on the same lucus a non lucendo 
principle) Southampton river ; and we reached it by a miserable 
small steamer, which conveyed the passengers, with the small lug- 
gage of the general body, and the whole luggage of the favoured 
few, on board The JSMp — the heavier luggage of those not in 
the secret having been sent before, at their expense, in sailing 
boats, after they had been again and again told that, on no 
account whatever, would heavy luggage be permitted on board the 
Tender steam-boat. But this is not the only instance in which I have 
found alleged impossibilities give way before favouritism or influence. 
I was accompanied on board by two good friends, who had kindly 
resolved not to part from me till the last. The day was cold and 



LEAVING ENGLAND. 17 

wet, and the sea rough. The cabin of the small steamboat could 
not contain the one-fourth of our number. We formed, friends in- 
cluded, a party greatly exceeding a hundred ; and, being enshrouded 
in a multifarious variety of pea-jackets, cloaks, and water-proofs, we 
formed a group so unpicturesque and unattractive, that it is only 
from a vivid recollection of the superior claims, in these respects, of 
the larger world we found on board the Great "Western, that I waive 
description of the minor scene, and proceed to the larger one. On 
reaching the steamship, we encountered a scene of confusion which 
almost baffles description. Passengers of every variety of tongue, 
dressed in costume of every variety of colours, with hats of 
all imaginable shapes, colours, and kinds — running about in 
every direction, and poking their heads into places where they 
had no business to be, in their attempts to secure preferences 
of conveniences for themselves, and to vindicate possession of their 
luggage : to this add the noises of the live stock, the tramplings and 
callings attending the getting in of the cargo and getting the ship 
ready for sea, and you may have, reader, some idea of the confusion 
which attends the getting underweigh for a foreign voyage. After 
a hasty but handsome luncheon, which was on the saloon table when 
we went on board, and to which we were invited by the national 
strain " The roast beef of Old England,^^ our friends said the unwel- 
come " farewell,^' and left us to our meditations, as the noble ship, 
like a thing of life, panted forth upon her voyage. Mine were dull 
enough, and I am not ashamed to acknowledge that they were so. 
But 1 was roused from them by a somewhat ludicrous incident, which, 
even at the risk of having my wisdom impugned, I shall here record 
were it only for the warning of such travellers as may peruse my 
book, and contemplate a similar trip. Like most persons, save the 
few who prefer ship-board to terra firma^ and think ^^ state rooms" 
quite roomy and airy, I thought the closet, which was to be my 
abode probably for the next three weeks, or perchance longer, was 
somewhat dark, and had somewhat of a close and confined odour. 
To remedy this, I had opened the port-hole ; and having done so, 
and seen my luggage deposited within, I had locked the door and 
taken the key with me, to prevent any interference with my "per- 
sonals,^^ till after the ship should sail. Thereafter, and when my 
friends had left me, I lay down on a sofa in the afterpart of the 
saloon. There, exhausted by my feelings, and the turmoil of the 
day, I fell asleep, and did not waken for some hours, or till the 
pitching of the vessel, after she had passed the " Needles," roused 
me effectually. Then I sought my so-called berth, in every way 
prepared to acknowledge that, in the state I felt myself approaching 
to, the recumbent position was the most natural, if not the most 
necessary. But, alas ! the same sea which aroused me from my 

2* 



18 SHIP COMFORTS. 

slumbers^ bad wasbed tbrougb tbe open port of my state-room, satu- 
rated my bed and bed-clotbes, and bad sent tbe different articles of 
my apparelling to intricate corners of tbe confined space. Occurring, 
as tbis did, on a Vv^et nigbt, at ten o'clock, and wben starting in a 
somewbat invalided state on a long voyage, it was unpleasant enougb. 
Eut tbe necessities of tbe case roused me from my melancboly mus- 
ings, better, probably, tban more comfortable circumstances would 
bave done ; and, notwitbstanding tbe first declaration of tbe steward- 
assistant, tbat, tbe vessel being full, tbere were no more spare mat- 
tresses or bed-clotbes to be bad tbat nigbt, I succeeded in a few 
hours, by tbe exercise of persuasion and tbe influence of a somewbat 
more potent power, in baving tbings put to rigbts, and retired to 
rest — agreeably surprised to find tbat, altbougb tbe pitching of tbe 
sbip bad increased, my incipient tendency to sea-sickness bad nearly 
disappeared. Tbis, however, is not the only instance in which I 
have found tbat over-exertion was tbe best cure for tbe malade du 
mer. 

While mentioning tbe stewards of tbe sbip, I deem it not out of 
place, and likely to be useful, to mention here tbe fact tbat, on tbe 
occasion of tbis voyage, formal and written complaint was made by 
the passengers of tbe inattention and inefiiciency of the stewards, 
particularly at tbe outset of tbe voyage ; and tbis I think a matter 
peculiarly wortby the attention of this "West Indian Steam-Packet 
Company. For many and obvious reasons^ some of which will appear 
in tbe course of my narration, this is a route which is likely to be- 
come a favourite one for and with invalids. At all events it will 
probably become so, if proper attention is paid to their comfort and 
safety during and for the voyage. The advantages of sea voyages 
for the cure of dyspeptics, and the beneficial results likely to accrue 
from such voyages in tbe incipient stages of pulmonary complaints, 
are beginning to attract much more attention tban bad been given 
to them formerly; and tbe advantages of a West Indian voyage, now 
tbat steam has made its direction and duration matters of certainty, 
consists mainly in this- — that the medical adviser, who recommends 
it as a sanitary measure, can calculate on bis patient being in the 
midst of bright skies and balmy breezes within five or six days after 
leaving England, and tbis whatever may be the period of the year at 
which tbe voyage is adventured on. But the transition from the 
conveniences and comforts usually possessed by an invalid at home, 
to the capabilities of tbe six or eight feet square called a state room 
on board a sbip, is, under any circumstances, a great and a harsh 
one. So great and so harsh tbat, unless preventive measures can be 
taken, tbere is some chance of the debilitated patient suffering more 
injury from tbe confinement, damp, and closeness of the ship, than 
he or she reaps benefit from the improvement of the climate. This 



AT SEA. 19 

is so plainly true^ and so oft confirmed by melancholy experience, 
that argument to prove it were a mere waste of time; and it is also 
true, and obviously true, that it is at the outset of a sea voyage that 
the invalid traveller, and indeed any traveller, is most alive to the 
discomforts of a ship, and is consequently most likely to be benefited 
by some degree of extra attention. It is however to be feared, that 
these facts sometimes escape the attention of steamboat directors ; 
and, most assuredly, the written complaints, of the inattention of the 
servants, made on the occasion of this voyage, were not without foun- 
dation. In every other respect, and particularly as regards the polite- 
ness and consideration evinced by the captain and officers, no com- 
plaint could be made, and no complaint was made. But as regards 
the servants, and particularly at the outset of the voyage, the attend- 
ance and attention were anything but satisfactory. I say at the out- 
set, because, while it was then that consideration and attention were 
most required, and would have been most appreciated by the passen- 
gers, it was then that the want of it was most displayed : the reason 
of this being, as I was afterwards informed, that the majority of the 
steward's assistants had been engaged only a few days before the 
sailing of the ship; so that, at the commencement of the voyage, they 
were comparatively new to their work, to each other, and to the 
steamer. This, however, is plainly an explanation, not a justifica- 
tion ; and it is only now mentioned, because it was the excuse com- 
municated to my fellow-passengers and to myself. It is sufficiently 
obvious that arrangements might be made for the attendance of a 
sufficient corps of stewards to accompany each successive ship on 
several voyages. 

" That man is to be pitied," says Mr. Turner in his annual tour 
for 1844, " who has never sailed from Southampton to Havre de 
Grace ;'^ and although I cannot carry my feelings of commiseration 
so far as to embrace all mankind, save such as are not included in 
Mr. Turner's remark, I can safely affirm, that he or she who has not 
sailed from Southampton on a foreign voyage, has something to see 
of the beauties of Old England. Comparatively disadvantageous as 
was the day when I sailed past and away from the Isle of Wight — 
an island with much justice called the " Garden of England" — I 
could not fail to observe the many elements of beauty which the 
scene possesses ; or to perceive that, on a fine clear day, and under 
the influence of a summer sun, it must in every way merit the cha- 
racter as being a scene calculated to "rejoice the gay, soothe the 
melancholy, and even warm the indifferent." 

On reaching deck next morning, I found myself, I may almost 
say for the first time in my life, (a Channel voyage having been the 
extent of my previous experience) " at sea." Before, behind, around, 
the heavens and earth were only separated by the line of the natural 



20 FELLOW-PASSENGERS. 

torizon, and the ship in which I was formed the centre of the visible 
world. 

It has been often enough remarked, that a sea voyage affords but 
few events or incidents to chronicle, for the interest of the general 
reader ; and this one certainly formed no exception to the rule. 
'' Sometimes we see a ship, sometimes we ship a sea ;^' while occa- 
sionally the announcement of a ship in sight, caused a very unusual 
degree of excitement among the passengers who might happen to be 
on deck — all and each left their perusal of Macaulay's Histori/ of 
England^ (then recently published, and of which, to the credit of 
the party, we had at least some dozen copies on board and in much 
request,) and their various occupations. Telescopes were had on re- 
quisition, and the utmost anxiety was displayed to ascertain the im- 
portant facts of whether the vessel was the " Maria" or the " Janet," 
the " Ruby" or the ^^ Pearl" — was laden with " fruit" or with " tim- 
ber" was bound for London or Liverpool. Such occasional occur- 
rences, with the somewhat amusing occupation (to those who, like 
myself, had overcome the demon of sea-sickness at an early period of 
the voyage) of observing the gradual increase of the number of pro- 
menaders on deck, and the gradual improvement in the external ap- 
pearance of each, generally supply sufficient excitement for the first 
few days after the vessel gets to sea. 

As seen when, or soon after, the ship leaves the port of departure, 
one's fellow-passengers generally appear under a very monotonous, 
and perhaps not very inviting aspect ; and literally, as well as figura- 
tively, it may be said that it is not for some days that the various 
members constituting the "living freight" appear under their proper 
colours. 

As regards my fellow-voyagers, on the occasion in question, I am 
bound to acknowledge that I was peculiarly fortunate. For although 
their number exceeded a hundred, and although there was among so 
many as great a variety of minds and of manner as there unquestion- 
ably, as well as amusingly, was of hats, caps, coats, and mustaches — 
(strange that so many Englishmen, when going abroad, should think 
of disfiguring their physiognomies with the unnational mustache) — 
there were none among their number of peculiarly ill-regulated 
minds or offensive habits; and there were several among them of 
whose elegance, talents, and general acceptability, I shall ever retain 
a most grateful recollection. Having always regarded the un- 
authorised introduction of individual names, and of scenes of private 
life, into narratives of travel, as an act much to be reprobated, it 
were a violation of my own views of propriety were I here to men- 
tion the names of any of my fellow-voyagers. But, without the 
chance of offending even the most fastidious feelings of any of them, 
(should this work come under their observation;) I may mention 



MADERIA. 21 

that, in the persons of a governor going to liis seat of government, 
and his lady — of a British consul and his graceful daughter — of a 
retired cavalry ofl&cer, now, alas! no more — of an accomplished and 
enthusiastic West Indian planter and proprietor — of a talented doc- 
tor, of fame as a writer on the important subject of tropical agricul- 
ture — -and of some other gentlemen of varied talents and occupa- 
tions — I found as pleasant a party, for morning promenading and 
evening amusements, as I ever expect to find for, or in the course of, 
a voyage across the broad Atlantic. Here, as on all other occasions, 
I found that a desire to please, and to be pleased, was a valuable 
preventive of tedium and ennui. 

It was not till the forenoon of the seventh day after leaving 
Southampton that we came in sight of the island of Porto Santo, 
which forms the most northerly of the group constituting the Madei- 
ras. I was peculiarly struck with two circumstances attending our 
doing so. In the first place, the precision and certainty of steam 
navigation properly conducted. On the day previous, I had been 
told by the first officer of the ship that we would see Porto Santo at 
a particular hour of the following day, and the time of first seeing it 
was within a quarter of an hour of the time he had mentioned. 
Again, when first seen from the ship, the land of Porto Santo lay so 
clearly in front that it seemed that, had the vessel held straight on 
her course, she would have struck nearly about midway on the 
northern coast of the island. While, on calculating the ship's posi- 
tion by the difierent chronometers, and by dead reckoning, there 
were not above two or three miles of difference between the extremes 
of the whole. This surely is as singular as it is satisfactory. 

But the next subject of my remark is one more certain to attract 
the attention of other travellers by sea — it being the singular appear- 
ance of land when first seen, and the refreshing and inspiriting sen- 
sations which the sight inspires. When land is announced from the 
mast-head, even to the most experienced eye all seems but one ex- 
panse of sea and sky, bathed, it may be, (as it was in the case I 
write of,) in the rays of an almost tropical sun. Shortly a cloud, or 
uneven darkness, gathers on the boundary of the ocean, occasionally 
moving, or seeming to move, or sometimes disappearing altogether. 
In a few minutes the darkness becomes more dense, and after the 
paddle-wheels have made a few hundred more revolutions, the seem- 
ing cloud settles, and becomes permanent and defined. Heights and 
hollows first appear ; then colours develop themselves; and at last 
the traveller is voyaging with the first sight of foreign land in view. 
In my case, this first seen land was the island of Porto Santo, only 
interesting from its forming one of the Madeiras. 

Was Madeira known to the ancients ? is a question much more 
easily asked than answered, and one which, in my case, formed the 



22 BARBADOES. 

subject of a good deal of amusing discussion among the pleasant 
party assembled on board the Great Western on the voyage in ques- 
tion. The discussion^ however, was carried on more for the sake of 
seeing what could be said on the affirmative of the question than for 
any other reason'; for I fear that there is but little direct evidence 
of any kind tending to encourage the idea that this beautiful group, 
composed of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Deserters, (query ^' de- 
serted,^') however appositely situated for discovery by the Car- 
thaginians and other voyagers of ancient times, were revealed to the 
world until their discovery by a long-named Portuguese in 1419. 
There is a story of their prior discovery by an Englishman named 
Mackin, and, were the position defensible, one's amor patrioi might 
dispose him to maintain the truth of this statement. But the now 
universal conviction is, that it is wholly fabulous, and that Portugal 
has the honour of giving birth to the discoverer of these balmy 
islands — this flor d'oceano, as the Portuguese themselves term the 
chief island of the group. If, however, the island of Madeira did 
not form the insula fortunata of the ancient world — -if that honour 
is to be given either to one of the Canaries or to one of the Azores — 
it surely was because Madeira was- unknown. For, if half that has 
been written of it be true, there is much justice in the remark of the 
enthusiastic Coleridge, that " if the ancients had known Madeira, it 
would have been their ijlusqiiam fo7'tunata insula; and the blessed 
spirits of the Grentiles, after a millennium of probationary enjoyment 
in the Canaries, would have been translated thither to live for ever 
on nectar and oranges.'' 

The existence of a quarantine, on account of the then prevalence 
of cholera in England, prevented our landing at Madeira. Although, 
therefore, we lay in the Bay of Funchal for nearly twenty-four hours, 
I am prevented from saying more of this Island of the Blessed, than 
that it has a very picturesque as well as a very volcanic appearance; 
and that its capital, Funchal, although neither so fine nor so large 
as I was led by descriptive accounts to believe, it had a gay, and, 
from the roadstead, a clean appearance. 

On bidding adieu to Madeira, we again emerged into the open sea, 
and steamed our onward voyage across the broad Atlantic, on the 
course most probably pursued by the great Columbus and his gallant 
companions in 1491, towards the island of Barbadoes — the first of 
the West India group at which these steamers touch — and the one at 
which (for the present) the mails are interchanged. 

For at least two days before reaching Madeira, I had felt a sensible 
and gradual increase in the warmth of the atmosphere; and after 
leaving that " flower of the ocean," the increase of the temperature 
was still more sensible. The lines of William Meyrick aptly de- 
scribe the appearance : — 



BARBADOES. 23 

" See at leiigth th' indulgent gales 
Gently fill our swelling sails. 
Swiftly, through the foamy sea, 
Shoots our vessel gallantly ; 
Still approaching, as she flies, 
Warmer suns and brighter skies." 

After the usual experiences of observing sucli signs of the ap- 
proaching tropics as the gulf-weed, flying fish, sharks, and dolphins; 
and after entering the tropics, and gradually divesting ourselves of 
our European garments, and substituting dress of much more suita- 
ble texture and lightness, we reached Barbadoes on the eleventh day 
after sailing from Madeira. 

Land had been announced ere I reached the deck, about seven 
o'clock in the morning, and the island was darkly visible when I 
first saw it. A short time, however, sufficed to define its outline ; 
and in a few hours the ship came to anchor in Carlisle Bay, then 
filled with a number of vessels, including her Majesty's line-of-battle 
ship the Wellesley, then carrying the flag of Admiral Lord Dun- 
donald. 

This being my introduction to tropical scenery, and the view of 
the town of Bridgetown from Carlisle Bay being a scene of much 
picturesque beauty, I was greatly and agreeably struck by the view 
which stretched itself before me on reaching the deck of the steam- 
ship. Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes, forms a curve of two miles or so, 
and the town of Bridgetown extends along it from point to point ; 
the white houses of which the town is composed being freely inter- 
mingled with gigantic palm-trees, and other trees of tropical produc- 
tion; and the trees, flowers, and shrubs so totally different from, and 
at this distance so much more effective and beautiful than those of 
Europe, made, from mere novelty as well as beauty, a powerful im- 
pression on my mind. JSTor was the feeling lessened on reaching the 
shore. The luxuriant vigour of the trees and shrubs, many of which 
I had never previously seen, save as the stunted or sickly exotics of 
an English conservatory, with the variety of the black and brown 
faces of the population, kept constantly impressed upon my mind 
the fact that I was now in a very different region from the realms of 
the north. 

BARBADOES, 

The easternmost of the Windward Islands, and the scene of Addi- 
son's touching story of "Inkle and Yarico,'' lies between 59° 50', 
and 60° 2', of west longitude, and 12° 56' and 13° 16' of north 
latitude. The length of the island from north to south is twenty- 
five miles, and its breadth from east to west is about fifteen or six- 
teen miles. Its superficial contents are estimated at somewhere 



24 BARBADOES. 

about a hundred and seven thousand acres, and its present popula- 
tion at not less than a hundred and forty thousand — a population 
per acre larger, and more dense, than is to be found in any other 
portion of the known globe, not even excepting China. For reasons 
which will afterwards appear, this density of population has opera- 
ted very favourably in, partially at least, protecting Barbadoes from 
the effects of the depreciating influences under which the rest of the 
British colonies in the West Indies have of late years been so severely 
suffering. 

Although my stay in Barbadoes was short, I was enabled, through 
the kindness of a fellow-passenger — already referred to, himself a 
large proprietor in the island, and one generally known, particularly' 
in connexion with his writings on the important subject of tropical 
agriculture — and of other friends, to see much of the island, and to 
much advantage. Of the many scenes I visited, that from Hackle- 
stone Cliff is the one which most impressed me, and of which I feel 
it expedient to make prominent mention here. Although this cliff, 
(which is nearly the highest elevation in the island) is not above 
eleven hundred feet in height, it commands one of the most beau- 
tiful panoramic views, both landward and seaward, which it is possi- 
ble for the mind to conceive. Below the cliff, that part of the island 
denominated Scotland (from a supposed miniature resemblance to 
the land of mountain and flood) stretches before the eye. On the 
right is a long line of sea-coast, and immediately in front lies a tro- 
pical valley of exceeding loveliness. It is possible that it was be- 
cause my visit to Hacklestone Cliff, and the scene of enchantment 
that thence opened up to my view, formed my introduction, so to 
speak, to the more inland scenery of the tropics; and because I visi- 
ted it in the society of four valued fellow-voyagers, and under the 
guidance of a kind friend, a resident proprietor of the island, that 
the loveliness of the view rises upon my mind many months 
afterwards — 

" While the breeze of England now 
Flings rose-scents on my aching brow," 

with a freshness of pleasurable sensation which does not attend the 
recall of other scenes, of even greater magnificence and grandeur. 
Such, however, is the fact ; and therefore it is that I recall and 
record the scene with a lingering pleasure, and that I recommend 
to every visitor to Little England, (as Barbadoes is oft-times 
called,) not to leave that beauteous island without paying a visit 
to Hacklestone Cliff. If the day be as fine as that I enjoyed, and 
he or she be as fortunate in fellow-voyagers and a cicerone as I 
was, the result will be a harvest of heartfelt pleasure and satis- 
faction. 



BARBADOES. 25 

There too it was^ and in tlie hospitable mansion of the gentleman 
already referred to, that myself, and the English and Scotch 
friends who accompanied me, were for the first time introduced to 
the hospitalities of the "West Indies, and to the abundant excellen- 
cies of a breakfast and dinner, &c., in the mansion of an extensive 
West India planter. But as I have rather an abhorrence of the 
unauthorized introduction of private scenes into incidents of travel, 
and am compelled to acknowledge that the hospitalities of " But- 
tles '' and of '^ Clayberry '^ were too good and too reclierclie to be 
taken as fair specimens of West Indian establishments, — I simply 
record the fact as above stated, and proceed to give a brief popular 
description of the processes of sugar-growing and sugar-making, 
as I witnessed them for the first time in this island, and on the 
estate of Drakeshall. 

The origin of the name, and the history of the sugar cane, is 
generally given as follows : The name sugar is derived from its 
ancient name of saccJiarum, which, being corrupted into sucra, or 
as it is in Spanish agucar, gives our word sugar. Originally the 
plant was found in Asia, and it was introduced into the West Indies 
by Columbus and his followers. In appearance, it is a jointed reed 
of from six to twelve, or even fifteen feet high, and of various 
thicknesses, of which an average may be said to be two inches. 
From the expressed juice of this reed is the sugar derived, the 
canes being passed through rollers, placed sometimes perpendicu- 
larly, but more frequently horizontally, and driven either by steam, 
water, horse, or mule power, but much more frequently, in the 
West Indies, by a windmill. The expressed juice being run down 
into the boiling-house, it is there — after undergoing a certain pro- 
cess, to temper and cleanse it — subjected to processes of skimming 
in coppers, or other pans, the heat being gradually increased, in 
the successive pans, until it reaches the boiling point in the last 
pan or boiler called in the English colonies, ^^ The Teache.^^ By 
these operations the juice is cleansed, and the water evaporated ; 
and when the sugar begins to granulate, or rather when the granu- 
lation has proceeded a sufficient length, it is poured into coolers — 
whence it is removed into hogsheads, in which it is allowed to 
stand for at least fourteen days or three weeks, to allow the mo- 
lasses to run out of it : after all which it is ready for shipment and 
sale. 

Such is a very general view of the process of making Muscovado 
sugar, as it is usually practised in the West Indian Islands : To 
which I have only to add, that the canes are propagated, not from 
seed, but from the top of the old plant, which top is struck off 
before cutting down the cane to remove it to the mill ; and that 

3 



26 ST. LUCIA. 

the whole process is a much simpler, as well as a much cleaner 
proceeding, than 1 had anticipated. 

In Barbadoes, besides the general interest to be found in the 
really excellent society of the island, there are many objects worthy 
of a visit, and which will gratify the traveller who has reasonably 
good introductions, and time to spare. Among these may be men- 
tioned Codrington College, situated on the confines or borders of 
the miniature Scotland — a stone building of no great pretensions 
to architectural beauty, but capable of accommodating nearly one 
hundred students, although now attended only by a much smaller 
number; — a burning spring, which emits sulphuretted hydrogen 
gas, that ignites on being brought into contact with fire ; — and an 
extraordinary banyan tree. Of the two last, however, I can only 
speak from the report of others. But I saw enough of Little Eng- 
land, and of its hospitable inhabitants, during my too brief stay, 
to make me wish that stay had been longer, and to satisfy me that 
even a long residence would not exhaust the many sources of 
interest which the island displays. 



CHAPTER III. 



" Beautiful Islands ! brief the time 
I dwelt loeneath your awful clime ; 
Yet oft I see, in noonday dream, 
Your glorious stars with lunar heam ; 
And oft before my sight arise 
Your sky-like seas — and sea-like skies." 

Henry Nelson Coleridge. 



It was with much regret, and many farewells, that I parted 
with my friends at Barbadoes, and also with certain of my fellow- 
voyagers who had journeyed with me so far, and joined the steam- 
ship to j)roceed onward through the Windward and Leeward 
islands. But sad would have been the heart, and desponding the 
disposition, that would not have revelled in the beauty of the 
scene, or felt many a thrill of ecstasy, on sailing through the sum- 
mer sea. 

After leaving Barbadoes, a sail of some ten or eleven hours 
brings the steamer to the island of 

ST. LUCIA, 

Situated in north latitude 80°14', and west longitude 29°, about 
twenty-three miles long by eleven broad, and containing a popula- 
tion of about 20,000 inhabitants. 



TROPICAL NIGHTS. 27 

The island of St. Lucia is volcanic and mountainous, and, as 
seen from the sea, the aspect of its craggy summits is exceedingly 
picturesque. Particularly is it so when viewed under the influences 
of a tropical moonlight. Would that I were able, without exciting 
extravagant and ill-defined expectations, to give the reader a suffi- 
ciently graphic idea of the soft radiance and splendour of a fine 
night in the tropics. A bright moonlight night is everywhere 
delightful. Many have been the moon and starlight nights I have 
witnessed and enjoyed on the hills, amidst the glens, and, more 
than all, among or on the lakes of our own unrivalled northern 
land. But a moonlight night within the tropics exceeds, in brilliance 
and in beauty, a moonlight night anywhere else. There is a soft- 
ness as well as a splendour about it, which is peculiar to itself; a 
mellow brilliancy, which almost transcends description. Indeed, 
as it was in this part of my journeyings that my attention began 
to be attracted by the loveliness of the tropical nights, this seems 
the proper place for recording my impressions regarding them. 
Whether on land or at sea, the scenery of the tropics on a moon- 
light night is singularly beautiful ; to my taste, infinitely more so 
than it is by day. On land, the brilliancy of the moon and stars 
is such that every leaf, and tree, and flower, seems bathed in 
floods of liquid light: a light so clear, and at the same time so 
mellow, and so soft, that the outline of the hills and other objects 
appear to be defined, almost with greater distinctness than when 
they are viewed by day. At sea, particularly with such hill- 
crowned islands as St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Montserrat, 
or St. Kitt's, &c., in near view, the scene is one still more lovely. 
The vast unfathomable sea, fit symbol of eternity, lying around 
you, either sunk in deep repose, or upheaving its vexed waves — in 
the one case a mirror for a thousand starry worlds, in the other a 
sparkling ocean of fire — the summits of the land illuminated and 
surrounded by a kind of halo : the scene has with it all the beauty 
of a northern moonlight night, and many beauties besides, pecu- 
liar to itself. A single fact will best illustrate the clearness of the 
atmosphere, and the greater prominence and brilliancy of the stars 
consequent thereupon. Oft when in Antigua, and also in the 
other islands of the West Indian seas, have I observed and called 
attention to the fact, that, in certain positions of the planet Yenus, 
she was seen under a crescent form like a small moon, and emit- 
ting or transmitting, in the absence of the moon herself, a quantity 
of light which made her by no means an insufficient substitute. 
Leaving St. Lucia, after landing and taking on board the mails, 
the steamer proceeds to the romantic island of 



28 MARTINIQUE. 

MARTINIQUE, 

Now, since slie has lost Hispaniola; the chief possession of France in 
the West Indies, and certainly one of the most beautiful and roman- 
tic Islands of the West India group. Martinique is situated in about 
west longitude 61°, and north latitude 14° 20', and contains a 
population exceeding one hundred thousand inhabitants. The ex- 
treme length of the island is about forty miles, and its average 
breadth about ten, embracing a superficies of two hundred and nine- 
ty-one square miles. The approach to the island from the south is 
exceedingly striking. Among the first objects seen is the remark- 
able Diamond Rock, which stands detached from the rest of the land, 
and is about five hundred and eighty feet high, and of which a very 
gallant story is told as to the exploit of a Captain Morris, of the 
English navy, during the last war between England and France, in 
hoisting to, and mounting on, the summit of this natural fortress, a 
thirty-two pounder, and therewith doing sad damage to the works of 
the enemy. 

The general aspect of Martinique is singularly rugged. The 
mountains, though not so high as those of Dominica, are higher 
than those of St. Lucia, and they present a remarkably splintered 
and volcanic appearance. In looking at them, I was not unfrequent- 
ly reminded of a story I had heard of a member of the British 
House of Commons, who, wishing to give a graphic idea of the 
appearance of Martinique, squeezed a sheet of paper strongly up in 
his hand, and having thus made it all heights and hollows, laid it 
down on the table, as showing generally to his hearers the thunder- 
splintered pinnacles and deep glens of this beautiful isle. 

The town of St. Pierre, the capital of the island, and the place 
at which the British steamers land their mails, is a pretty, clean- 
looking place, of which the natives of the island are not a little vain. 
As contrasted with some other towns in the West India islands, such 
as Bridgetown in Barbadoes, St. John's in Antigua, or Basseterre in 
St. Kitt's, St. Pierre in Martinique has certainly a superior appear- 
ance of permanency, residence and comfort. It boasts too of a thea- 
tre, and also of sundry restaurants of small dimensions ; and it re- 
joices for the present in a very beautiful row of tamarind trees, 
which grace the beach ; and in a streamlet of water running down 
the centre of the principal street, and imparting at least the sem- 
blance of coolness. On the whole, the visitor will be much pleased 
with St. Pierre, and its peculiarly French aspect, particularly as he 
cannot fail, in the course of his visit, to remark the truth of an ob- 
servation I have somewhere met with, viz. — that the coloured females 
of this island excel in grace and beauty the ladies of the same com- 
plexion to be found in most of the other islands, and particularly 



DOMINICA. 29 

those in the possession of England. A similar remark is found to 
apply to the women of colour in the Spanish and Danish islands; so 
that it would really seem, as observed by Coleridge, that " the French 
and Spanish/' and I would add the Danish " blood, seems to unite 
more kindly and perfectly with the negro than does our British 
stuff." 

The favourite objects of purchase by tourists at Martinique, are 
the eau-de-cologne, manufactured in the island, and which is really 
excellent ; and also sundry liqueurs of varied excellence and varied 
taste, compounded from native fruits and flowers^ and meant to imi- 
tate the noyeau curagoaj &c., of European fame. 

At the time of the writer's visit in 1849, Martinique was in a 
very depressed condition. The prospects of the sugar crop were un- 
favourable, and universal were the complaints of the impossibility of 
getting the negroes, now free, to work at any reasonable amount or 
rate of wages. Indeed, great and reasonable fears were entertained 
that half of the present year's crop might be lost, through the diffi- 
culty of getting it off the ground and forwarded to the mill-house. 
Nor were the feelings of the planters at that time alleviated by much 
hope of compensation from the home government, on account of the 
heavy losses they had sustained by the emancipation of their slaves, 
or to aid them in adventuring on the new course of culture which 
that philanthropic measure had rendered necessary. So far as I 
could judge, the general opinion seemed to be, that, if compensation 
were awarded at all, it would only be of a nominal kind — a sound of 
compensation without the substance of it ; and in the pittance which 
has since been awarded by France to her colonists, in consideration 
of their loss by the liberation of their slaves^ this opinion has been 
signally and sufficiently vindicated. 

After leaving Martinique and its cloud-capt summits, the steamer 
proceeds to the British island of 

DOMINICA, 

Situated about north latitude 15° 25', and west longitude 61° 15'. 
This island is twenty-eight miles long by about sixteen broad, and 
contains a superficial area of 136,436 acres. The general character 
of the scenery is extremely mountainous, rugged and broken, and at 
its highest point it reaches the elevation of no less than five thousand 
three hundred feet. The approach to Dominica from the south is, 
like the approach to Martinique, exceedingly interesting and inspi- 
riting. On the occasion of which this is a narrative — on leaving St. 
Pierre and while coasting along the shores of Martinique — the day 
was warm and beautiful, the sea a summer one, and the air tropically 
clear. The ship was for a time attended by a shoal of porpoises, 

3* 



30 GUADALOUPE. 

which, tumbling and rolling along with their pig-like motions, called 
to the remembrance Horace's description of the sea-god, — 

" Omne quum Proteus pecus egit altos 
Visere inontes." 

Ere you lose sight of Martinique, Dominica becomes clearly visible ; 
and, on nearer approach, the sides of the mountains which crest and 
adorn it are seen to be clothed to their very summits with shrubs and 
trees ; while glens open up to view, (also clothed with shrubs and 
trees of various hues,) of such depth that the eye is unable to pene- 
trate to the bottom of their recesses. At first it is impossible to dis- 
tinguish the different kinds of trees and shrubs, that so numerously 
and so luxuriantly clothe both the heights and the hollows. But a 
few more revolutions of the rapidly moving paddles, and a few more 
heavings of the noble ship as she cleaves the calm but swelling sea 
in her onward course, and the deep green of the cedar or the man- 
grove, the feathery leaves of the tamarind and the ilex ; the light 
velvety green of the sugar-cane, and the brilliant hues of the " Bar- 
badoes pride,'^ become easily distinguishable, and create an impression 
on the mind that you are now at last approaching the " garden of the 
tropics.'' The town of Eoseau, at which the steamer lands her mails, 
is a tolerably well-built town for a West India one ; but, like most 
of the towns in the English or French possessions in the West Indies, 
it bears too many marks of desertion and decay. It is, however, 
proper here to add, as regards Martinique, Dominica, Antigua, St. 
Kitt's, &c., that such appearances are greatly aided by, and oft-times 
confounded with, the appearances produced by the earthquake of 
1843, or by the hurricane of 1848, which devastated these islands to 
a truly appalling extent. 

In the centre of the mountains of Dominica, and about ten miles 
from Roseau, there is a fresh-water lake of some extent. The island 
also exhibits traces of volcanoes now extinct, or at least now silent ; 
and I w^ assured, by intelligent residents, that these and other ob- 
jects would amply repay a visit. My time, however, did not admit 
of the indulgence. So, after trafficking, as well as some of the other 
passengers, in the monstrosities, such as gigantic frogs stuffed and 
varnished, mountain pigs stuffed, &c., which formed the staple of 
trade with the Dominica boatmen, I proceeded onward with the 
steamer to 

GUADALOUPE, 

A French possession, situated at about 62° west longitude, and 16° 
20' north latitude — sixty miles long by twenty-four broad. Properly 
speaking, Guadaloupe consists of two islands close together; of which 



VOLCANIC PHENOMENA. 31 

the chief is the eastern division, or " Grande Terre/^ the town of 
which is called Port-a-Pitre, or St. Louis ; the town in the western 
division being called Bassaterre ; — while, in the immediate vicinity 
of Guadaloupe, there are three very small islands called the Saintes, 
(after the town of Saintes in France,) all of which are inhabited and 
cultivated, and regarded as included within the limits of the French 
colony of Guadaloupe. 

The chief object of interest in Guadaloupe is its singular volcanic 
hill, called La SoufFriere, or Sulphur Hill, whose summit reaches a 
height of five thousand five hundred feet. But, indeed, almost every 
one of the Caribbee Islands may boast of its sulphur hill. Although 
none of them at present have (and God forbid that any of them 
should ever have) volcanoes in active operation, there are few or none 
of them that do not bear some traces either of volcanic origin or of 
volcanic efifects. These appearances are particularly observable in St. 
Lucia, Martinique, and Guadaloupe. All these three islands are of 
a palpably difi'erent formation from Barbadoes. St. Lucia bears 
marks of a volcanic nature in her boiling ponds, &c. ; — the mountain 
soil of Martinique is largely composed of pumice, either in lumps or 
powder ; and this pumice is oft-times found intermixed with a ferru- 
ginous sand, such as is generally seen about volcanoes ; — while, as 
above stated, Guadaloupe has its Soufi"riere, or sulphur hill, from 
whence large quantities of brimstone are daily brought by the negroes 
for the purpose of sale. Thus, almost all the islands of the Carib 
group, betray evidences of volcanic character. In some, the volcano 
has become extinct, and is no longer to be traced. But in others, as 
in the Soufiriere of Guadaloupe, there are decided and well-charac- 
terised craters, which are occasionally active, throwing out, on such 
far-between occasions, ashes, scorise, and lava, to a very great dis- 
tance. Thus, there is an authentic account given of an eruption from 
the Souffriere of the island of St. Vincent, on the 1st of May, 1812 
— on which occasion the mountain discharged ashes in quantities suf- 
ficient to darken the air all around the island ; while some of these 
ashes were sent up so high, and blown so far, that they fell on the 
deck of a vessel three hundred miles to the westward of the island of 
Barbadoes. 

If the reader of this book wishes farther to prosecute his inquiry 
as to these sulj^hur hills of the West India Archipelago, he will find 
a very interesting account of one of the most extraordinary among 
them — the one which exists in the romantic island of Montserrat — 
written by Br. Nugent, and published in the Transactions of the 
Geological Society. 

From Guadaloupe to Antigua, the sail, in a steam vessel, is accom- 
plished in a few hours. On the occasion of my visit, this portion of 
the voyage was the only stormy part of it — a fact which is impressed 



32 •' ANTIGUA. j 

■upon my mind by a somewhat amusing incident. During the voyage 
from England, one of my fellow-passengers had been a clergyman of 
the Church of England, who, with his wife and family, was proceed- 
ing to enter on his duties as chaplain to one of the embassies. Al- 
though the weather had been exceedingly fine, and the sea by no 
means rough, this excellent and reverend gentleman had suffered 
most severely from the demon of sea-sickness, from which he was 
then only beginning to recover. At Dominica we had taken in 
another gentleman of the cloth — a dignitary of the Church, in the 
person of the Right Reverend Bishop of Antigua, (the able and 
excellent Dr. Davis ;) and when about to leave the vessel at English 
Harbour, Antigua, I was — in the midst of my regrets at parting with 
the many kind friends on board — amused by accidentally overhear- 
ing a conversation between two sailors, one of whom ascribed the 
then boisterous state of the weather to this increase in our comple- 
ment of parsons ; and, when reminded that it was against his theory 
of Neptune's hostility to the Church, that, notwithstanding our having 
had a parson on board all the way from England, the weather had 
been peculiarly fine, and the sea quiescent ; the immediate answer 
was to the effect, that the sea-god had revenged herself by personally 

visiting the Rev. Mr. P with an unusual amount of sea-sickness. 

A small matter will often change the current of thought, and I was 
not sorry to take advantage even of this to divert my mind from the 
gloomy reflections that were crowding upon it, as on a somewhat dark 
and cloudy midnight hour, I made my solitary first landing on the 
island of Antigua. I tried, therefore, to speculate upon the origin 
of so absurd a superstition ; and I also reflected upon the somewhat 
singular combination of circumstances which in the present instance 
seemed to give somewhat of countenance to it : and, after shaking 
hands with the friends who had risen to see me disembark, I landed, 
in the earliest grey dawn of a stormy tropical morning^ at English 
Harbour in the island of 

ANTIGUA, 

Situated in north latitude 17° 3', and west longitude 62° V. This 
island is divided into six parishes, is about eighteen miles long by 
fifteen broad, and contains a population of about forty thousand 
inhabitants, of whom upwards of thirty thousand are negroes, and 
above five thousand coloured persons, the rest of the population being 
white. Antigua enjoys the distinction of being the seat of govern- 
ment of the Leeward Islands. The capital of the island is the town 
of St. John's, but the royal mail steam-packets do not land their 
mails or passengers there — chiefly^ I believe, because there is not 
sufficient depth of water on or over the bar which lies at the entrance 



ANTIGUA. 33 

of the very beautiful; admirably protected, and capacious bay of St. 
John's, to enable these steamships to get safely in. The passengers 
and mails are accordingly landed at English Harbour, on the east 
side of the island, which involves a drive of some twelve miles ere 
the traveller can reach any comfortable resting-place for the night. 
For, whatever the Guide Books say, it were only to mislead to induce 
the hope of obtaining, in the existing hostelry at English Harbour, 
such accommodation as an English traveller would consider comfort- 
able. But it is impossible to remember with any feeling of regret, 
a drive so beautiful. 

Reader, have you ever felt the sensation of being alone in a foreign 
land, where all is new to you, all unknown, save through reading or 
report, and you yourself unknown to any of the many by whom you 
are surrounded ? The feeling of isolation which for a moment came 
over me, when I found myself so situated, is one I can scarcely ever 
forget ; and if the reader can realise it, he or she will appreciate the 
prevailing sensation which, for a short time at least, oppressed me, 
as I stood alone in the dockyard at English Harbour, Antigua, in 
the dim light of earliest dawn, before starting on my solitary drive 
to the town of St. John's. 

But there were many things to interest, and to occupy the atten- 
tion, in the scene which surrounded me. English Harbour forms 
one of the most compact, commodious, and secure harbours to be 
found, probably, in the whole world. The entrance is extremely 
narrow — so narrow that, as the steam-ship Great Western entered 
slowly in, it seemed as if her bulk filled the neck of the harbour. 
But within, the natural basin is deep and capacious ; so deep that 
the largest line-of-battle ship of the British navy may be moored 
within it, and so capacious as to afford accommodation for a large 
squadron. While, being guarded by a chain across the narrow 
entrance, and commanded by a fort on the adjacent hill, merchant 
vessels lying in it are protected from the assaults of any enemy that 
Great Britain could have to fear. The ride from English Harbour 
to St. John's, the capital of the island, is through a very interesting 
country. Seen as I saw it, under the beams of a tropical sun, in 
early morning, and with the dew upon the leaves, and the to me yet 
unfamiliar flowers, I thought it singularly beautiful. At some risings 
on the way, nearly the whole island is visible at once, and several 
magnificent panoramic views are thus obtained ; while, for the greater 
part of the ride, the fortifications on the '^ Ridge,'^ on which the 
Barracks for the white troops stand, form a frowning as well as a 
fine object in the view. The traveller is conveyed from the steamer 
at English Harbour by a phaeton or omnibus, one or other of which 
attends the arrival and departure of the steamers to convey the mails 
and passengers to and from the town of St. John's. The mode of 



34 ANTIGUA. 

conveyance is comfortable, and the fare of two dollars is not unreason- 
ably high, as are but too many of the charges for the means of pro- 
gression or locomotion in the West India colonies. 

It must, I presume, always be with feelings of considerable 
depression that the traveller, especially when labouring under a 
weakened frame, finds himself entirely alone, without a known 
face within his reach, and in a foreign country. I confess that, 
despite of all efforts to arouse myself, my feelings were of that 
sort, as, after bidding farewell to my kind friends and fellow-pas- 
sengers on board the steamship, and expressing a hope, more than 
an expectation, that we might meet again, and watching the vessel 
as she renewed her voyage, and, steaming out of the harbour, again 
careered over the waste of waters, I took my solitary seat in the 
caleche which was to convey me to the town of St. John's, Antigua. 
The advancing daylight, and the real beauty of the drive, soon, how- 
ever, dissipated such feelings; and I had nearly regained my wonted 
elasticity of spirits, when I arrived at the inn or lodging-house (the 
latter term most fully describes all the " hotels ^' — so-called — in the 
West Indies) which I, at the time, thought was to be my temporary 
abode for a period of a month or two. But I also confess that it re- 
quired all my fortitude to withstand the reaction caused by my 
reception, and the place itself. For duty compels me to record the 
fact, for the benefit of subsequent tourists, particularly of invalid 
ones, that the ideas of what is included in the English term " com- 
fort '^ must be limited indeed, if they be gratified by the comforts 
found in the hotel of St. John's ; and it is with some regret that I 
record this fact, seeing that, during my stay, the desire to contribute 
to my convenience was manifested in many ways, and only failed in 
being successful through the inherent deficiencies of the establish- 
ment, for which there is not that encouragement which can alone 
create or sustain the means of comfort. Fortunately, however, my 
stay in the hotel of St. John's was of brief duration. Through the 
unexpected kindness of the Grovernor-general of the Leeward Is- 
lands, whose seat of government is in Antigua, and to whom I had 
been fortunate enough to bring letters from near and dear friends, I 
was, after a stay of a week in the hotel, enabled to take up my quar- 
ters in Grovernment House; and it was during a sojourn of seven 
weeks there, and in the country-houses of Antiguan friends, whose 
kindness will never be forgotten while memory lasts, (and whose 
names I only refrain from recording for the reason already mention- 
ed when writing of my fellow-voyagers,) that I saw the scenes, and 
acquired the information, in reference to matters connected with this 
island of Antigua, which I now purpose to record in the immediately 
succeeding pages. 

But^ before leaving the subject of lodging-houses or hotels in the. 



ANTIGUA. 35 

West Indies — and as this work is in some measure designed as a 
Land-book and guide for European invalids, visiting these islands in 
search of health — it is material to observe that, by a little pre-ar- 
rangement, which can easily be effected through the instrumentality 
of a friend in the island, all chance of serious discomfort may be 
avoided. By a little preparation on the part of the hotel-keeper, 
and a few additions on the part of the visitor, the hotel may be made 
a comfortable abode enough, not merely for a casual visitor, but for 
one who meditates a stay of a long duration. Besides, comfortable 
furnished lodgings can generally be secured by writing to a friend, 
before you arrive, to secure them, and have them in readiness for 
you; and this course I would strongly advise the invalid to adopt, 
in all cases in which it is practicable^for him or her to do so. 

For many reasons Antigua is, to the philanthropist, one of the 
most interesting of the numerous islands forming the West India 
group. It was there that slavery may be said to have been first 
abolished in the British West Indian possessions, inasmuch as the 
Colonial Legislature of Antigua at once rejected the apprenticeship 
system, and at once adopted entire emancipation. This was in 1834. 
When the clock began to strike the hour of twelve o'clock on the 
last night in the month of July 1834, the thirty thousand negroes 
of Antigua were all slaves — slaves in every sense of the word — the 
property of others. When it had ceased to sound, they were all 
freemen — freemen under every meaning of that term — unfettered 
even by the apprenticeship, and at liberty to do what they chose 
with themselves and their powers of labour. Surely this was a stu- 
pendous, and therefore an interesting change. During my stay in 
Antigua I had many conversations on the subject, and heard many 
highly interesting details regarding it, from men of all shades of 
opinion as well as of colour. In particular, I enjoyed the privilege 
of hearing, from his own mouth, the views and opinions of the able 
and influential gentleman who moved the bill for rejecting the ap- 
prenticeship system, and adopting immediate emancipation : and all, 

and no one more emphatically than the talented Dr. himself, 

concurred in describing the scene as calculated to excite feelings of 
the deepest interest. That the adoption of immediate emancipation, 
instead of taking advantage of the intermediate measure, called or 
miscalled the apprenticeship system, was a matter purely of policy 
and expediency, unconnected with feelings of morality or of religion, 
will not, it is presumed, be denied by any one. But the manner in 
which the boon was received by the negro population unquestionably 
reflects great credit on them, or on their advisers and leaders. The 
31st of July 1834 was a Thursday, and the evening of that day saw 
nearly the whole grown-up negro population of the island of Antigua 
in the houses of prayer, engaged in religious exercises, chiefly of praise 



36 ANTIGUA. 

and tlianksgiving. In the Wesleyan meeting-liouse, in the town of 
St. John's^ when the bell of the cathedral began to toll the hour of 
midnight — the hour that was to set them free — the whole audience 
sank on their knees, and continued thus to receive the blessed boon 
of freedom, until the last note had been tolled ; when they rose to 
express their gratitude to God, and their rejoicings to each other. 
Pew, whatever may be their views on the general question of eman- 
cipation, will deny either the interest or the impressiveness of such 
a scene. The coming day, Friday, was also devoted to religious ex- 
ercises throughout the greater part of the island ; as also was Satur- 
August 1834 was the first day on which the negro population of any 
day; and, as a matter of course, Sunday; — so that Monday the 4th of 
part of the British colonial possessions in the West Indies worked as 
freemen — entirely and finally emancipated. It argues well for the 
negroes and their religious instructors, that it is generally conceded 
by the planters in the island of Antigua, that on no previous occa- 
sion had the workers on their different estates turned out better than 
they did, when thus, for the first time, called upon to labour at their 
occupation without the dread of the lash, in the event of their now 
refusing so to do. 

In the numerous discussions in the British legislature and else- 
where, Antigua is generally represented as better supplied with the 
means of labour than the rest of our West India colonies — Barba- 
does alone excepted : and that circumstance is usually referred to in 
explanation of the fact that this island has suffered less under, or 
rather struggled more successfully against, the depressing influences 
against which the West India planters have of late years had to con- 
tend. This is, however, only in part correct. That Antigua has 
not suffered quite so much as some of the other English colonies 
have done, from the operation of the Sugar Duties' Act of 1846, has 
been as much owing to the fact that the estates in that island are 
owned by a body of enlightened proprietors and agriculturists, many 
of whom are resident in the colony, as to any other cause ; and that, 
even still, there is a deficiency of labour, is shown by many circum- 
stances, of which the late introduction of a large body of Portuguese 
labourers is only one. In point of fact, with the single exception of 
Barbadoes, none of the British Colonies in the West Indies are suffi- 
ciently supplied with labourers ; and this is a truth which is constantly 
lost sight of by those who, despite the evidence of actual experience, 
still meet the claims of the West India proprietors with the plea that 
"free labour is as cheap as slave labour.'' The effect of emancipa- 
tion obviously and necessarily, though perhaps not quite immediately, 
was greatly to lessen the number of field labourers. It lessened 
their number by withdrawing from agriculture and from sugar-mak- 
ing a number of persons, who, resorting to the towns and villages, 



ANTIGUA. 37 

formed there a kind of intermediate clas3 of small shopkeepers and 
artisans or tradesmen. And it also lessened the amount of labourers 
on the crops, by removing from field labour numbers of the young of 
both sexes, whose aid had been previously available at times of 
planting, hoeing, or crop time, and generally for all departments of 
light work. That such changes were, in certain points of view, de- 
sirable, is not disputed. But the elfect they had on the operations 
of the British planter, in the rearing of sugar canes, and in the manu- 
facture of sugar and of rum, must, it is obvious, have been very in- 
jurious ; and, without here entering at large into a question which I 
will have an opportunity of discussing at greater length in the con- 
cluding chapter of this volume, I would here draw the reader's atten- 
tion to the consideration, that it would only have been fair to the 
B.ritish West India planters, that care had been taken to supply them 
with some substitute for the " power" withdrawn from them under 
the operation of the Act of Emancipation, before exposing them to 
the effects that have arisen from acting on a belief in the truth of the 
very questionable dictum that — in so far at least as tropical cultiva- 
tion and manufactures are concerned — the labour of freemen is as 
cheap and as effective as is the labour of slaves. 

To return, however, to the metropolitan island of the Leeward 
group. 

Antigua, though certainly not one of the most romantic of the 
West India islands, possesses many scenes of exceeding loveliness, 
and the two months I passed within its limits are classed among the 
most pleasing of my treasures of memory. Subject, as I knew the 
island to be, to long-continued droughts, and reading, as I had done 
in the works of Coleridge and others, of its being very scantily sup- 
plied with springs, I had prepared myself for a much more arid spot 
than I found it to be. " Healthful withal, but dry and adust," was 
the verdict of anticipation that I had passed on this the largest of 
the British Leeward Islands ; and, from conversations with others, I 
know that this is a very general impression regarding Antigua. I 
have, however, the pleasing office of contradicting it. Although 
none of the hills of Antigua are high enough to be entitled to the 
name of mountains, they rise so abruptly from the sea and from the 
plains, as to give them an appearance of altitude which produces the 
same effect as if they were of greater height; and among the hills on 
the sea-coast, on the south-west of the island, there are to be found 
many scenes of great beauty, if not of exceeding grandeur. 

The town of St. John's — the capital of Antigua — is situated on 
the west or south-west of the island, and contains, I was several 
times assured, about ten thousand inhabitants, although it has not 
the appearance of so large a population. The streets are broad, and at 
right angles with each other ; and when the mind of a European gets 

4 



gg ANTIGUA. 

familiarised with the caravan-like style of the mansions, there is a 
good deal of regularity, and something to admire in the appearance 
of the houses. On all hands I was informed that, previous to the 
terrific earthquake which visited Antigua and her Leeward sisters in 
1843, the town of St. John's was much more handsome and regular 
than it is now ; and evidence of the truth of the remark is to be seen 
in the numerous negro huts, crowded into spaces between more opu- 
lent-looking mansions ; spaces which had been formerly occupied by 
houses of greater pretensions and magnitude^ but which, in the pre- 
sent condition of matters, even in Antigua, their owners had not 
found it convenient to rebuild, after they were shaken down by the 
earthquake itself, or blown down by the tempest by which it was ac- 
companied. But the situation in which St. John's stands is its 
chief beauty — on the shore of one of the loveliest bays that the eye 
can repose upon — a bay shut in by hills on almost every side. From 
the shore of this bay, the ground on which the town stands rises up 
in a gradual slope towards the cathedral, which is as it were the 
Acropolis, and forms a most imposing object in the landscape. Therfe 
is therefore much to admire in the position of the capital of Antigua, 
and still more in the natural objects by which it is surrounded. 

One of the most conspicuous objects in or about St. John's is the 
cathedral, mentioned above as standing on the brow of the acclivity 
on which the town is built — and which, although not strictly of any 
particular kind or school of architecture, or distinguished by archi- 
tectural beauty of any description, is an imposing structure. It occu- 
pies the site of a former cathedral which was destroyed by the earth- 
quake of 1843, and of which the inhabitants of the island seem to 
have a fond and favourable recollection. The present building is 
large, being capable of containing above two thousand people. The 
cost of its erection was little short of £40,000 sterling. It is built 
of a kind of marl-stone found in the island, and its interior is lined 
throughout, roof and all, with the same timber of which the seats or 
pews are fashioned; and, this wood being as yet unpainted, the 
whole has a novel effect to the eye of one direct from England. Al- 
though there is no regulation, or even understanding on the subject, 
all parts of the church being open to all classes, without distinction 
of colour, yet in practice the body of the building is usually occupied 
by the white population — the people of colour and the negroes occu- 
pying the side aisles and galleries — there being, as it appeared to 
me, an obvious separation even between the two latter in regard to 
the portions of the church which they severally tenanted. All this, 
however, is simply the result of those feelings of caste which, to a 
certain extent at least, as yet prevail in the West Indies; and of 
which, notwithstanding the assertions of several writers to the con- 
trary, the European traveller among the islands of the West Indian 



AxNTIGUA. 39 

Archipelago will, if he attentively observes, find many evidences or 
perchance remains. Various attempts have from time to time been 
made, by liberal-minded governors and others, to break down the 
feeling which isolates the classes, and particularly the coloured people 
from the whites, but only with very minor effect ; and whatever may 
be the case in matters of business, assuredly it is but the simple truth 
to say, that there is little homogeneousness of feeling or of sympathy, 
in regard to matters of social intercourse. Attempts at mixed dinner 
parties or mixed balls have been attempted in few places, save occa- 
sionally at Government Houses ', and even there their success has 
not been such as to lead to their frequent repetition. My present 
object is merely to record facts as they impressed myself, not to 
speculate upon them. Were it otherwise, I might be disposed to 
express at greater length my sympathies with the coloured popula- 
tion of many of the West India colonies, and the reason why I think 
it were most desirable that, as a body containing many persons of 
much talent, energy, and general acceptability, they should be some- 
what better amalgamated with their white fellow-countrymen, by a 
more entire breaking down of that " middle wall of partition'^ which 
as yet separates the two classes in many important respects. 

The incumbents officiating in the pastoral office in the Cathedral 
of St. John's, Antigua, in 1849, were the Lord Bishop of the Dio- 
cese, (Dr. Davis,) the venerable Archdeacon Holberton, the Kev. 
Mr. Warner, and a fourth reverend gentleman, recently appointed. 

Allusion has been made to the earthquake of 1843, which levelled 
nearly with the ground the former cathedral of Antigua. Of this 
earthquake, the disastrous effects are yet to be seen in every part of 
the island. Shortly after it occurred, and at a time when I had but 
little idea of visiting Antigua, I received from a young relative, then 
in the island with his regiment, an account of it, contained in a 
letter dated 12th February 1843, in which it is mentioned that 
" there was not a single stone or brick building which had not been 
levelled with the ground; and that on board a ship at sea, at the 
distance of one hundred and sixty miles from any of the islands, the 
shock was so severely felt that the shipmaster imagined the vessel 
had struck on a rock.'' From information received from the gentle- 
man who fills the position of coroner for the island, and who, as a 
proprietor himself and also as attorney for other's, has a deep interest 
in all matters relating to Antigua, I learned that the number of 
deaths caused by the convulsion through the fall of the buildings, 
and otherwise, throughout the island, little exceeded twenty — a 
number small when the extent of the disaster in other respects is 
taken into consideration, and only to be accounted for by the fact 
that the negro houses are built of such light materials that their fall 
or overturn does not involve the destruction of human life. 



40 ANTIGUA. 

The prison of St. Jolin's, Antigua, deserves mention, were it only 
to denote the vast improvement that must have taken place in its 
construction and arrangements since the year 1825, when Mr. Cole- 
ridge visited and described it as being "like most others in the West 
Indies, that is to say, as bad in every way as possible." However 
applicable this description may have been to the former place of du- 
rance in Antigua, it is only justice to record the fact, that it has no 
application whatever to the present airy and cleanly erection. It 
was visited by me in the society of Dr. Nicolson, junior, whose firm 
exercise the medical and surgical superintendence over it; and for 
ventilation, cleanliness, and facilities for labour and solitary confine- 
ment, (when these last are inflicted by judicial appointment,) I ques- 
tion if it is surpassed by any prison of equal extent, in any part of 
the world. The number of prisoners in custody at the time was 
about eighty, being within fifty of the entire number the prison is 
calculated to contain. The daily cost of maintaining each prisoner 
was about sixpence per day, being a reduction of twopence per day 
from the former cost — a reduction effected under certain economical 
arrangements, suggested and prescribed by the present Governor- 
general (Higginson,) who takes a personal interest in this matter, as 
he does in everything else that affects the well-being of the islands 
over which he has the honour to preside as the representative of the 
Crown. That the daily cost or allowance of each prisoner is amply 
sufficient for his or her comfortable maintenance, may be gathered 
from the fact, that instances are by no means uncommon in which 
prisoners in the jail of Antigua have disputed the order for their 
liberation, on the ground that the period of confinement prescribed 
by their sentence had not fully expired — preferring the comforts of 
the prison to those of their own huts. It is to be feared, however, 
that such cases have only occurred where the confinement was 
" without labour," and that they have merely proceeded from the 
indolence of the negro character — an indolence so nearly universal 
as to lead almost to the conviction that it is constitutional. 

At the date of my visit to the jail of Antigua, there was only one 
prisoner in the debtors' ward. This fact, however, did not prove 
anything either for or against the proportion of the population ex- 
posed to such execution against the person. It rather arose from 
the circumstance that, in Antigua, as in all civilised places, it has 
been discovered to be but a coarse and irrational way of stimulating 
a man to industry, to place him where his exertions can be of little 
or no use either to others or to himself : aided, also, no doubt, by 
the influences of a law which I found in the pages of the statute- 
book of the local legislature of the island — and which is interesting 
to a Scotsman as showing a resemblance to the law which has long 
been in existence in his native land on this subject— which law com- 



ANTIGUA. 41 

pels the incarcerating creditor to provide for tlie wants of tis indi- 
gent debtor while in jail, by paying for him one shilling a-day, in 
the way of aliment, on the debtor making oath that he has not the 
wherewithal to support himself. 

Of the general aspect of the island of Antigua, as regards the po- 
sition and appearance of the estates and the general state of cultiva- 
tion, I could write at some length, having enjoyed the advantage of 
visiting the chief works and plantations in the society of their re- 
spective owners and managers. But to do so would not give a fair 
exposition of the condition of the British West India colonies in 
these respects. For although, even in this metropolitan and favour- 
ably situated island, the appearances of decadence are but too pain- 
fully evident, it is well known that, owing to the large proportion of 
proprietors resident in Antigua, there is in it an accumulation of 
talent, intelligence, and refinement, and consequent enterprise, 
greater probably than is to be found in any other West India colony, 
except perhaps Jamaica. If, therefore, any one goes to Antigua 
prepared to see anything of that inattention to proper and economi- 
cal cultivation and management, of which one occasionally hears so 
much in the high places of Parliament and elsewhere, he will find 
himself mistaken and agreeably surprised. The steam-engines, 
patent sugar-pans, and other improved apparatus on the island, are 
numerous, and every efi"ort has been made to lessen the cost of 
manufacturing sugar, molasses, and rum ; while, as regards agricul- 
tural matters, the most improved modes of husbandry have been 
introduced on almost every estate. And it is a fact told me by the 
well-known proprietor of one of the finest estates in the island, (the 
estate of Cedarhill) that in times of prosperity, when sugar cultiva- 
tion was remunerative, many Scotch ploughmen and Scotch ploughs 
were introduced at great expense into the island, to improve the cul- 
ture of the soil. Indeed, it was from seeing Scotch ploughs, of 
Wilkie's patent, in operation at a ploughing match in Antigua, that 
the proprietor of an estate, in the county of Chester in England, 
formed the resolution to introduce their use on his own estates at 
home. Facts like these are surely better than a thousand theories 
or unsubstantial statements. Although the destruction of their 
hopes, under the influences of later legislation, have, in a great 
measure, destroyed the spirit and lessened the means of the Antiguan 
planters and proprietors to make improvements in farming and dis- 
tillation, or sugar-making, it is beyond dispute that they have, in 
less depressing times, proven both their desire and their ability, to 
adopt every means of improving the whole three. 

Suffice it therefore here to say, on the subject of the general ap- 
pearance of the country portion of Antigua, that the whole island 
is well cultivated — studded over with the buildings of the different 

4* 



42 MONTSERRAT. 

estates^ thrown together in groups, and consisting of the proprie- 
tors' and managers' mansions and outhouses, with the negro huts, 
and the sugar-works, distilleries, and windmill. In general, the 
mansion-houses are favourably situated — ofttimes with much at- 
tention to picturesque effect. The cane-fields come up to the road- 
side, and are without fences of any kind — probably because timber 
is scarce, and because hedgerows would have a tendency to exhaust 
the lands of their moisture. 

The greatest difficulty the cultivator of the soil has to contend 
with seems to be, the extirpation of what is somewhat appropriately 
named ''Devil's Grrass,^^ — a sort of running weed which spreads 
with great rapidity, and is of very difficult eradication. 

Besides the works of the proprietors, and their concomitant 
negro villages, there are sundry ''independent villages,^^ inhabited 
chiefly by negroes, in various parts of the island, which have 
sprung up since emancipation, and which interfere somewhat with 
the cultivation of the estates, from the fact that the negroes who 
dwell in them are ofttimes drawn off to the cultivation of the plots 
which surround their houses, at times when the want of their 
labour on the cane-fields and at the sugar-works is severely felt. 
This evil is experienced by the planters in many other of the colo- 
nies, and especially in the island of Jamaica. 

In the vicinity of Antigua stands the small island of 

MONTSERRAT, 

Situated in west longitude 62° 17', and north latitude 16° 48'. 

To this island the English steamer proceeds after leaving Anti- 
gua, and thus it may be reached in a few hours. Indeed, at any 
time, with the advantage of the trade-wind, Montserrat may be 
reached from Antigua during a forenoon ; although the return to 
Antigua may, in a sailing vessel, be the work of a couple of days, 
as the trade-wind is of course adverse to a speedy return voyage. 

The island of Montserrat, as the reader may desire to know, was 
so named by Columbus from a real or supposed resemblance to the 
famous mountain of Montserrat in Catalonia in Spain; which in 
its turn derived its name from the Latin word serra, a saw, because 
the rugged appearance of its summit gave it some resemblance to 
that useful instrument. 

Montserrat, though small — being only about nine miles long by 
eight or nine broad, and containing not more than from forty thou- 
sand to fifty thousand acres — is an exceedingly pretty and also a 
salubrious island, and will well repay a visit. Like some of the 
islands in its vicinity, it boasts a Souffriere, of which a very good 
description is given by Coleridge, in his usual livelj^, enthusiastic 



MONTSERRAT. 43 

strain ; and on the ride to tlie scene, as well as in other parts of 
the island, there are many scenes of great beauty and interest. 

The negro population of the island speak with an Irish accent, 
probably from a large part of its early trade having at one time 
been with Ireland, and there being at one time Irish managers and 
proprietors in the island. In 1770 the value of its exports to Ire- 
land was above £80,000, while to England the inhabitants of the 
island only exported to the value of £7400. Mr. Coleridge says 
of this accent, that it forms the most diverting jargon he ever 
heard in his life ; but the following anecdote, well known to those 
who have visited the island, will best illustrate both its nature and 
its extent. Viewing, as the inhabitants of the Leeward Islands 
generally do, Antigua as the capital and head-quarters of their 
number, the negro who has " emigrated ^^ from Antigua to Mont- 
serrat talks of the length of time he has been ^^ out,^^ just as the 
Canadian or Australian emigrant does of the length of time that 
may have elapsed since last he saw the bold mountains of his na- 
tive Scotland. And it is said that many years ago, when an emi- 
grant from the Emerald Isle was about to settle in Montserrat, he 
was surprised to find that the negro who was rowing him from the 
ship to the shore spoke with as pure a Milesian brogue as he did 
himself. Taking the negro for an Irishman, though a blackened 
one, and desirous of ascertaining the length of time that it took so 
thoroughly to tan the " human face divine,^' the Patlander ad- 
dressed his supposed countryman with the question, '' 1 say, Pat, 
how long time have you been out ?" " Three months,^' was the 
astounding answer. ''Three months !'' ejaculated the astonished 
and alarmed son of Erin — " three months ! and as black as my 
hat already. Row me back to the ship. I wouldn't have my 
face that hlach for all the rum and sugar in the West Indies.'^ 

But the reader may Well ask whether the writer's experiences as 
a stranger visiting the West Indies for the first time, were all of 
the pleasing character recorded in the preceding pages — whether 
there were not many things offensive — many things which may 
fairly be placed in the category of West Indian annoyances ? Most 
certainly there were many such ; and these sketches would be very 
incomplete did they not contain an attempt, at least, to prepare, 
and consequently to fortify, the visitor — particularly the invalid 
visitor — for what he has to encounter in the way of inconvenience 
or unavoidable annoyance. A few pages shall therefore be now 
devoted to the recording of some of my own evil experiences, al- 
though many of the sources of discomfort to be noticed were not 
felt till I visited the Danish or Spanish islands, in an after part of 
the journeyings of which this book contains the narrative. 

Of the general effects of the climate of the West Indies on a 



44 GENERAL REMARKS I 

European, and particularly on one in delicate health, little need 
here he said. It is hot, but, at the season of my visit, between 
February and June, not so hot as I had been led to anticipate from 
the representations of others. With proper precautions, no one 
who visits the West Indies solely on account of health (and who 
is therefore not under the necessity of exposing himself or herself 
often to the noonday sun) need make the heat any ground of seri- 
ous objection. There is generally, if not always, a breeze which 
tempers the intensity of the sun's rays ; and the only remark the 
writer deems it necessary to make on this subject is, that, after 
visiting nearly the whole of the Islands of the West Indian Archi- 
pelago north of Barbadoes, his experience is, that there is much 
more chance of injury from disregarding the changes of the cli- 
mate, and the occasional blasts and chills of evening, than of much 
discomfort being felt from excessive heat. In Barbadoes, and the 
islands to the north of it, the thermometer varies very greatly — 
ranging in the shade from a little above 70° to 110°, and even 
sometimes higher — the variation being of course dependent on the 
comparative elevation, and also on the degree of exposure to the 
breeze from the sea. In Barbadoes there is no ground which can 
be characterized as mountainous, the highest elevation in that 
island being little above eleven hundred feet. But there is a sea- 
breeze generally prevalent, which greatly tempers the heat. In 
Antigua there are many situations of some elevation, where a de- 
lightful climate may be had ; and the same remark applies, even 
more strongly, to Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitt's. The genial 
breezes and verdure of Santa Cruz have recommended it to the 
Americans and others as a place of sanitary resort ; and in the 
noble mountains of Dominica, Martinique, and still more of Ja- 
maica, (the island of springs,) may be found every degree of cli- 
mate, from sultry to temperate, and even to cold. Everything, 
therefore, depends on the proper selection by the invalid of his 
place of retreat. In the course of my remarks, I shall have occa- 
sion to explain my reasons for affirming that, many as are the 
invalids, and particularly those labouring under pulmonary com- 
plaints, who now occasionally visit the West Indies, there is not 
only far too great ignorance prevalent as to the superior advantages 
of these islands as places of sanitary retreat, but there is often 
much ignorance displayed in the selection of the particular island 
to which the patient goes or is sent. Meantime, however, I shall 
simply content myself with remarking that, while the subject is an 
important one, involving as it does the hopes of many a household, 
and the question of recovery or of non-recovery of many a fair 
face and lovely form, there is provided hy Providence in the great 
range of temperature to he found in the West Indian islands j 



ON WEST INDIES. 45 

climates suitahle for almost every stage and variety of pulmonary 
complaint. 

But, even after having made a good selection, as regards the 
place of residence, the European, and especially the English visitor, 
should be somewhat prepared for meeting with various experiences 
which may offend his habits, or militate against his comfort. Some 
one has before remarked, that comfort is a word which has a pecu- 
liarly English meaning as well as sound ; and during a temporary 
residence in the West Indies, the English visitor may be occasion- 
ally reminded of this fact. Not to speak of the comparatively 
open, desolate, and unfurnished appearance which some West India 
houses (and particularly most of the West India lodging-houses) 
have to an eye straight from the closely fashioned and richly car- 
peted rooms of England, there are other differences to be enume- 
rated, which have a tendency to offend, at least, the prejudices of 
the European traveller. With regard to these, the views and 
opinions of different writers will of course vary, according either 
to their home habits and experiences, or according to the nature 
and extent of the opportunities afforded each for observation : 
those favoured with introductions to the better society of each of 
the colonies, seeing little of them, and judging accordingly ; and 
those going to the West Indies without such introductions, having 
their attention much attracted (query, distracted?) by the bare 
floors, unglazed windows, and uncushioned seats, occasionally to be 
encountered in most of the lodging-houses or hotels. But, apart 
from the question of houses, there are other more general sources 
of annoyances to be encountered in the dogs and cocks that dis- 
turb your sleep by night, and in the musquitoes, chigas, and other 
insects, that war against your equanimity both by night and day. 
In such things the visitor from the north of Europe should expect 
to find, for at least the first season of his visit, enough to annoy 
him not a little. Where all the dogs come from, sometimes puz- 
zles one to know ; but the interest of the inquiry in no way lessens 
the discomfort of having one's sleep broken up into fragments by 
the incessant yellings and yelpings which these curs generally keep 
up in the towns through the livelong night ; and it were really 
worth the attention of the island legislatures of Barbadoes and 
Antigua, &c., to take, even from so humble a book as the present, 
the hint to put a tax upon dogs — if not for the sake of increasing 
much the colonial revenues, at least as an act of charity towards 
such invalids as the search after health may induce to visit their 
hospitable shores. But the cocks are not one whit behind the dogs 
in this crusade against sleep. For, whether it be that Creole poultry 
never sleep at all, or that they sleep through the day, and mistake 
the bright beams of the chaste moon for the ardent gaze of Phoe- 



46 GENERAL REMARKS 

Ibus^ and lift up their voices during tlie night — the crowing, bark-: 
ing, and yelping heard at night in the respective capitals of. 
Barbadoes and Antigua, St. Kitt's and Santa Cruz, are amply 
sufficient to render irate the temper even of a very patient man, 
and to justify the volley of stones occasionally discharged at the 
more intrusive disturbers of rest who venture within '' fire/^ To 
such and suchlike occasional annoyances, may be added the petty 
warfare of the insect tribes,^which, engendered and fostered by the 
heat, and unaffected by the frosts to which in northern climes the 
inhabitants are indebted for their being exterminated or kept within 
bounds, multiply and swarm in myriads, which it takes some time, 
for a lady visitor especially, to get accustomed to. Of these 
insects the chiga, and better-known musquito, shall here only be 
mentioned. 

The chiga, or ^^ jigger,'^ as it is usually called, is a small black 
or dark-brown fly, which, getting under the nails or under the folds 
of the skin and other tender parts of the human body, is, if not 
very soon removed, sure to engender irritation and pain, and some- 
times even worse consequences. After so inserting itself, the ani- 
mal lays its eggs ; and if these are allowed to remain, the part 
some days afterwards begins to swell and inflame, the extent to 
which this proceeds being only measured by the length of time the 
animal and its products are suff"ercd to linger in the flesh. But as 
it always makes its presence known by an itchy or tickling sensa- 
tion — a sensation, by the way, which the writer has heard many 
describe as rather pleasurable than otherwise — there is no chance 
of any injury if the animal is then removed, as it may very easily 
be. But the negroes and other labourers, such as the Portuguese 
work-people lately brought into Antigua, and into some of the 
other West India Islands from Madeira, and especially the latter, 
are strangely indifl'erent to the attacks of the chiga and other 
insects. In the hospitals, and on the roads, persons are often met 
with, who, by want of attention to cleanliness and disregard of the 
attacks of the chiga, have been rendered helpless and diseased 
objects of charity. There is a pretty general belief prevalent 
amongst the negroes and coloured population, that there are two 
kinds of chigas — one poisonous, the other not so. But there is no 
proper foundation for such belief, and it has probably arisen from 
the fact that while the working population, who neglect precautions 
and cleanliness, often suff'er much, the higher classes, who act more 
prudently, seldom sufi"er in any way. 

But the much abused and widely diff"used musquito is, in my 
opinion, if not the most dangerous, at least the most annoying of 
all the insects which swarm in the beams of a tropical sun. Of 
these insects I have heard at least five kinds named in difierent 






ON V/EST INDIEP. 47 

parts of tlie West Indian Archipelago — the coraci, zuncudo, redac- 
tor, jiiguey, and lancetero. These are names peculiar to Cuba ; 
but they describe species of the insect which are to be found in 
most of the islands. My first acquaintance with the West Indian 
musquito was made during a week's residence in an indifferent 
lodging-house in St. John's, Antigua, where, in consequence of my 
not being protected from their attacks by the almost indispensable 
musquito net, I was peculiarly exposed to their assaults; and, 
judging from my experience at that time, I would have supposed, 
not only that they were a legion in point of number, but that they 
were the worst of the many species into which the Cubans divide 
those to be found in their island. Indeed, it was not till an after 
period of my journeyings, when in the Spanish colonies, and also 
in the southern states of America, that I found any of the mus- 
quito tribe more annoying than those encountered in Antigua. 
First impressions are, however, always the most acute, if not 
always the most lasting ; and it is therefore during the first weeks 
of his sojourn that the invalid will feel most annoyance from the 
cause referred to. Moreover, and the assertion will seem a strange 
one, almost as much discomfort is produced by the huzz or hum- 
ming of the insect as by its bite. Like that class of grumblers 
referred to in a well-known Scottish adage, it may be said of the 
musquito that his buzz or " bark'^ is ^' waur than his bite.'' This 
is a remark which is almost universally made by visitors who have 
been a short time in any of these colonies. The humming sound, 
produced by the motion of the wings of the insect, and which im- 
presses the mind with the conviction that it is only selecting a soft 
and sensitive point of attack, often proves very annoying, particu- 
larly to one debilitated by illness. Indeed, the bite of the insect 
is scarcely felt at the time ; nor is it productive of much annoyance 
at any time, provided only the party operated upon can refrain from 
rubbing the part that may be affected. 

Such are some of the sources of discomfort which the visitor 
may expect to encounter during the first few months of his resi- 
dence in the West Indies. At the utmost they are but trifling 
ones, and such as ought not to be considered by any as a serious 
objection to imdertaking the voyage, particularly when health is in 
view. Indeed, I would not have thought them worthy of mention 
at all, had it not been that my remarks are intended chiefly for the 
perusal and preparation of the invalid, and had it not been that 
my own personal experience leads me to think that a little antici- 
pation of what may actually be felt, would have prevented much 
of the discomfort to which I have alluded. 

To return, however, to Antigua and its scenery. 

Although, as already mentioned, no part of the island is so high 



48 ANTIGUA.. 

as to "be entitled to the character of mountainous, the highest hill 
in it scarcely reaching the height of twelve hundred feet, yet the 
fact that the hills, particularly on the southern side of the island, 
spring directly from the sea on the one side, and from the plain on 
the other, gives to them an appearance of majesty which one would 
not anticipate from a knowledge of their actual height. This cir- 
cumstance often reminded me of a statement I had heard in a 
neighbouring and therefore a rival island, that "there was a metro- 
politan air about Antigua and its inhabitants, and that even the 
very hills lifted up their heads and tried to look like mountains/' 

Amongst these hills there are many scenes of rich and rare 
beauty. The summits called the Ridge and Monks-hill, on which 
the English Grovernment have erected their garrison and fortifica- 
tions, are very fine objects in the landscape, and will amply repay 
a visit. Indeed, the whole of the scenery in the southern parts of 
the island, and in the vicinity of English Harbour, is replete with 
beauty ; although, perhaps, the only scene in it which can be fairly 
characterized as magnificent, is that known by the name of Fig- 
Tree Hill. The tortuous descent of this hill, clothed as the sides 
of it are with every description of tropical forest-trees, intermixed 
with shrubs of every variety of kind and colour, affords a scene of 
very unique grandeur, and fully justifies Mr. Coleridge's observa- 
tion regarding it, that it is " a landscape so exquisitely beautiful, 
that no poet or painter who had once seen it could ever forget the 
sight V Indeed, and without professing any title to painting or 
to poetry, I shall ever regard the ride which opened up to me the 
remarkable beauties and tropical grandeur of Fig-Tree Hill, 
Antigua; as entitled to a place among what Dr. Browning calls' 

" Memory's gems of thought." 

It is in the descent of this hill that the visitor is reminded, by 
his attention being directed to the wayside spring as an object of 
interest or remark, that Antigua is dependent on the rains that fall 
for the supply of water. For, although it is not quite correct to 
say, as is often done, that there are no springs in this island, still 
there are very few, and those that are to be found are very incon- 
siderable. Indeed, this very clear one, to be found on the left- 
hand side of the road, before entering the dark descent of Fig-Tree 
Hill, is the only one which is not brackish, from the interference 
of water from the sea. 

But it is only those who entertain northern notions of what is 
called "rain water,'' who would regard this fact as an objection to 
a residence in the island. Whether it be that the absence of 
smoke causes the rain to reach the earth in a state of greater purity, 
or that more attention is paid to its purification and safe keeping 



i 



ANTIGUA. 49 

after it is gathered into tanks, I know not ; but tins I know, that I 
never felt the want of good pure water while I sojourned in 
Antigua, and that I would probably not have known whence the 
water I got to drink had been derived, had I not made inquiry 
upon the subject. The want of spring water in Antigua is, there- 
fore, not felt to be a want even by those who do not belong to the 
class of the West Indian, who, when applied to decide a dispute 
as to the salubrity of water in an island in which he had resided 
for seventeen years, answered — " Water, gentlemen ! — water ! I 
really don't recollect ever having tasted the water.'' 

But among the very beautiful scenes which I had the pleasure 
and privilege of witnessing in this, the metropolitan island of the 
Leeward group, there was none that struck me with more plea- 
surable feelings than the beautiful appearance of a tropical sunset, 
as witnessed from the acropolis of the town of St. John's, or from 
any of the neighbouring hills. It is a scene which may be wit- 
nessed nearly every evening, and particularly if the return to St. 
John's, from an afternoon excursion, is timed so as to command it. 
The mountains of Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitt's, on the right 
and left of the picture, the broad ocean lying between, generally 
in a state of calm repose, with the golden sun occasionally seen on 
the verge of the horizon, as he appears to burst through or part 
asunder the dark clustering clouds that attend his setting — look- 
ing, as I have somewhere read, like faithful courtiers in waiting on 
the deathbed of their monarch at the close of a glorious reign ; the 
richly coloured and fantastically grouped masses of the clouds 
themselves, with their broken splintered summits, ^^ bathed in 
floods of liquid fire ;" the beautiful bay of St. John's with Groat 
Island Hill and sundry other summits in the foreground, or rather 
a little to the right of the picture — such materials combined, as I 
have often seen them when returning from an afternoon's ride in 
Antigua— form a union of scenic beauties, and compose a view of 
rich and rare excellence, such as no lover of nature could ever forget. 

There are many other scenes of much beauty to be found in the 
island of Antigua, to which the attention of the visitor is generally 
directed ; but none appeared to me to possess such superior excel- 
lence as to lead me to suppose that a description of them would 
interest the general reader, however sufficient they proved them- 
selves to attract, and even to engross agreeably, my own attention 
at the time. In the memory of such scenes, a visit to Orange Val- 
ley, and a return to Government House, St. John's, with an eques- 
trian party of agreeable friends, in the bright but mellow light of 
a tropical moon, by the shores of Five Island Bay, and through the 
appropriately named " Dark Valley,'^ occupies a conspicuous place. 
It was in the course of this ride that I first favourably remarked 

5 



50 ANTIGUA. 






"both the appearance of great height given to the hills^ from thai; 
rising almost immediately from the level of the sea, and the extra 
ordinary clearness of the tropical atmosphere. As regards the first 
of these, a hill of eight hundred or one thousand feet high has 
almost the appearance of a mountain; and after toiling up the 
acclivity, with a scorching sun nearly vertical, one is almost dis- 
appointed at being told the real altitude to which he has attained : 
while in reference to the second, the purity and clearness of the 
atmosphere is so great that, looking frem the mansion-house of the 
estate, which is situated on the hill-side, across the intervening 
valley, objects of a comparatively small size are seen with a dis- 
tinctness which renders all their movements, and even their '^ cut " 
and character, figure and dress, (such as they have,) discernible to 
the spectator, although he and the object he looks at be separated 
by the distance of a mile and more. 

In a work like the present, and keeping in view the avowed ob- 
ject of it, as explained in the outset, it were out of place to enter 
into any lengthened exposition of the condition of Antigua, as 
regards morals or religion. But I feel that I were wanting in 
common justice, were I to refrain from adding my testimony in 
favour of the fact, that the inhabitants of this island, white, 
coloured, and black, may and do contrast favourably with that of 
any city or place that I know of, both as regards morals, and at- 
tention to religious observances. Nowhere, although a native of a 
land which claims some distinction in this respect, did I ever see 
the sanctity of the Sabbath more worthily and more devoutly recog- 
nized than I did in the island of Antigua; and I know that I 
record the sentiments of the very highest authority in the island, 
(a gentleman who has proved the sincerity of his anxiety for the 
welfare of Antigua and her sister groups,) when I say that many 
thanks are due as well to the Moravian and Wesleyan ministers of 
the gospel, as to the zealous clergymen of the Established Church, 
in this portion of the colonial empire of Grreat Britain, for the edu- 
cational and religious position which Antigua at present holds. 

As regards the religious establishments at present in the island, 
they may be enumerated in the following order, and as consisting 
of about the following numbers ; and although I could not learn 
that there were any means of ascertaining exactly the numbers in 
each class, I have confidence in the opinion that the statement I 
obtained, from some of the heads of the difierent bodies themselves, 
will not prove in any particular materially inaccurate. 

In connexion with the Established Church there are six parish 
churches, (including the cathedral at St. John's,) and about as many 
chapels of ease ; and in attendance on these churches and chapels 
are to be found a very large proportion of the white and coloured 

i 



I ANTIGUA. 51 

I I population, (who are generally estimated at five thousand and two 
I thousand five hundred respectively,) and about five thousand of the 

negroes. Of the numbers of the Moravians 1 am enabled to write 
with entire accuracy, having in my possession a manuscript statement 
with which I was favoured by Mr. Westerby, the excellent and highly 
esteemed superintendent of that body in the island. The Moravian 
brethren have in Antigua, at present, nine churches and chapels, 
under the charge of ten ministers ; while of the eight thousand eight 
hundred and six members of the population in connexion with the 
: body, six thousand two hundred and ninety-eight are adults, and, of 
I the last-mentioned number, four thousand six hundred and eight are 
I communicants. Nearly the whole of these persons are negroes, only 
a few of them being of the coloured population, and still fewer of 
them white. Following up the principles of their profession, the 
Moravian body in Antigua have already schools in connexion with 
the churches. They have at present nine Sunday schools, which are 
I attended by two thousand one hundred and ninety-five scholars, who, 
of course, are nearly all negroes, and whose education is presided 
over by no less than one hundred and six female, and one hundred 
and seven male teachers. But certainly none of the institutions be- 
longing to this excellent body was visited by me with more pleasure 
than their Juvenile Training Institution, at the time of my visit 
under the charge and management of the Keverend A. Hamilton, a 
native of Scotland. I enjoyed the advantage of visiting it in the 
society of the Governor-General, who was desirous of judging for 
himself of its state and efficiency ; and although at the time I did 
so the premises were in confusion, from the effects of the severe hur- 
ricane of the preceding year, and of the building measures in opera- 
tion to remedy its disastrous effects, I saw enough to impress me 
with a strong conviction of the utility of such an establishment for 
supplying the means of illumination in many a dark and desolate 
corner of the globe, and among many a benighted nation and tribe 
of the human race. The object of the establishment, which is en- 
tirely supported by contributions of the United Brethren, and of their 
friends — payments by the parents of the children being entirely 
voluntary — is to bring up native boys in every department of know- 
ledge, at the same time teaching them some manual trade, (in accord- 
ance with the usual Moravian discipline, which recognizes, in its 
fullest extent, the dignity as well as the necessity of supporting one's 
self by one's own labour,) so as to fit and prepare them for being 
missionaries and clergymen, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus where- 
ever they may be called, and particularly in tropical regions ; thereby 
supplying not only more labourers for Moravian missions in every 
part of the world, but saving the funds of the body, a large portion 
of which is necessarily expended every year in defraying the travel- 



52 ANTIGUA. ■I 

ling and other expenses of their teachers and their preachers, as they 
journey from Europe to all parts of the known world, the tropics 
included. The number of pupils under Mr. Hamilton's charge, in 
the summer of 1849, was seventeen. Their ages varied from six to 
fourteen years, and they were of all shades, from the face of the fair- 
white of the northern clime to the coal-black of the genuine African. 
But colour made no difference, either in their aptitude for learning, 
or in their treatment by their kind preceptor. Black, brown, and 
fair, answered the somewhat puzzling questions (for children) put to 
them by the Governor, &c. ; and all were so obviously on an equal 
footing, that the teacher might fairly have inscribed over the door of 
his establishment Virgil's celebrated line — 

" Tros Tyriusve milai nullo discrimine agetur." .i^ 

Of the seventeen boys, ten were from various British possessions 
in the West Indies, and the rest from the Spanish and Danish 
colonies ; but all of them claimed for themselves the title of English- 
man, when asked to what country they belonged. 

Next to the Moravians, the Wesleyan Methodists are the most 
numerous body of dissenters in Antigua. They have seven chapels, 
beside preaching-stations, in the island, and the largest of their cha- 
pels is that in the town of St. John's, which is capable of holding 
two thousand people, and is generally, if not always, filled. I have 
a very vivid recollection of this large meeting-house, from the fact 
of its being the first place of worship filled with a black congregation 
I had ever in my life seen. I visited it on the evening of the very 
first day I spent in the island, and at the time when, as yet, I was 
entirely unacquainted with any one in it ; and the scene impressed 
me with all the force of novelty. 

Besides the denominations already mentioned, there is a small 
body of Scotch Presbyterians, who rejoice in one of the most singularly 
ugly specimens of architecture, in the shape of a church, that it has 
ever been my fortune to see ; and, strangely enough, this unsightly 
object (which looks like half a church surmounted by a meat safe) 
occupies the most prominent position about the town — the site of the 
cathedral not excepted. 

The stranger visiting St. John's, should certainly visit an institu- 
tion there, denominated the Soup House — an institution which is, all 
circumstances considered, one of the most creditable to be found in 
the West Indies. Like most other establishments in St. John's, 
having for their beneficent object the relief of human want, and the 
alleviation of human suffering, or the improvement of human nature, 
this institution is mainly indebted for its origin and foundation, and 
subsequent progress, to the exertions of the Rev. Archdeacon Hoi- 

J 



ANTIGUA. 52f 

berton — a clergyman whose beneficent efforts^ in the cause of Chris- 
tian benevolence, all classes in the island agree in eulogising. 

The Soup House is so called from its having originated in a humble 
endeavour to supply soup to the indigent — its origin being so lowly 
that the first boiling or brewing took place under the shade of a 
tamarind-tree still in existence. To the soup or kitchen department 
there has been added an infirmary, a separate sailor's hospital in a 
dificrent part of the town, and near the sea, and a lazar-house for 
the reception of patients deformed by that awful species of leprosy 
which attacks the black population (at least I did not see any white 
or coloured victims) in these islands. "When I visited the institution, 
there were .one hundred and thirty patient^ in the infirmary and 
sailors' hospital, and nearly thirty in the lazar-house ; but these are 
of course in addition to the numerous body receiving outdoor relief. 
The whole expense at present does not much exceed £100 per month, 
and the means of expenditure are supplied partly by private subscrip- 
tion, and partly by grants from the local legislature. 

In connexion with the history of this institution, there is a cir- 
cumstance which I think worth recording, as strongly illustrative of 
the truth that man may propose, but that it is the Almighty who 
cUsjJoses in all matters. The room which forms the place of meeting 
for the directors or committee of management is a wooden one, and 
the minutes entered in the minute-book, on the forenoon of the very 
day on which the great earthquake of 184eS occurred, contains a re- 
solution to the efi"ect that the timbe?' building should be replaced by 
a stone one. The earthquake came, however, and confirmed every one 
in the conviction that wooden erections were safer than stone build- 
ings in such a country. It is unnecessary to say that the resolution 
of the minute was never carried into efi"ect. 

A calm fine day in the tropics is certainly productive of feelings 
of extreme delight. Where every day or nearly every day, during 
the dry season, is clear and fine, it may seem difiicult to give a pre- 
ference to one over another. So thought I, until, in the quietude of 
a friend's house, in the month of May, in about the centre of the 
island, I passed a whole forenoon, and nearly a whole day, in con- 
templating the beautiful calmness and clearness of the scene. Not 
a cloud in the sky ; not a mist on the earth — 

" So calm, so pure, it seemed as 'twere 
The bridal of the earth and sky." 

Nothing to break the calm silence of the scene, save the occasional 
chaunt of a negro band, who were engaged, at some distance, putting 
up the sails of a windmill, and whose chorus, rude and imperfectly 
heard as it was, sounded pleasantly on the ear, as the indication of 
light hearts. Such was one of the days I passed in the country in 

5* 



5C ANTIGUA. 

Antigua, and there were many such passed in the enjoyment of the 
domestic circle of my friends in that island. But it has been often 
before remarked, that not unfrequently it is the time most pleasantly 
spent that presents fewest occurrences to record. 

I have above referred to the earthquake which visited Antigua, 
and her sister islands of the Leeward group, in the year 1843. Of 
this awful convulsion, as well as of the severe hurricane which 
swept over some of the same islands, traces are still to be found in 
every part of Antigua. Churches blown down, forest-trees uprooted, 
houses destroyed, and negro huts upturned, prove how fearful these 
convulsions must have been. Nor will the evidences of its severity 
seem less, if gathered from the testimonies of the numerous suf- 
ferers. Every one you meet with, who was in the island at the 
time, has something to tell both of the earthquake and of the hur- 
ricane ; and the details I heard were such that I was surprised that 
I had not heard more at home upon the subject, and that greater 
efforts had not been made, by the home Grovernment and the pub- 
lic, to aid our colonial brethren under these severe dispensations. 
Sure am I that the treasures of England have been squandered 
where there was infinitely less of suffering, and infinitely less of 
claim. 

In connexion with the earthquake, I heard an anecdote of a 
negro overseer, which displayed as much coolness, under circum- 
stances of danger, as any story I ever heard. The earthquake made 
itself felt by repeated and successive shocks, or shakes, each of 
some minutes' duration, during which the earth heaved and seemed 
to reel, so that it was impossible to stand steady ; and many lay 
down on the ground or floor till the shaking subsided. 

During one of the lulls, which were marked by a deep stillness, 
the proprietor of one of the finest estates in the island rose ujd, and, 
as he graphically expressed it, ^' after steadying himself on his 
feet,'^ went out to see what injury had been done by the antecedent 
shocks to the buildings of his sugar-works. On passing one of his 
cane-fields, he was surprised to find a band of negro girls hoeing 
canes, under the charge of a negro overseer, who accosted him coolly 
with the observation — " Bad shake that, Massa,'^ and then turned 
round to one of the girls who (alarmed by the earthquake) was 
moving off to some place of imagined safety, — ^^ You, Miss Dina, 
you come here ; you no Hop de shake, can you V 

To the person fresh from Europe, there is much information, as 
well as amusement, to be found in watching the peculiarities of 
the negro character. At least I found it so ; and, without mean- 
ing to be a eulogiser of the negro and his capabilities, I must say 
I saw and heard much to satisfy me that the negro race is capable 
of advancing to a high position in intelligence and civilisation. 



SAILS TO ST. KITT'S. 55 

Centuries of misrule and injustice may require something like cen- 
turies of good government and justice to atone for their depreciating 
and brutalising effects ; but already, in the British West India pos- 
sessions, the negro has proved that he is quite fitted for the exer- 
cise of most of the rights of a freeman. In the legislatures of 
many of the islands there are already sundry negro members, and 
in most of them there are to be found many gentlemen of colour, 
having a large supply of negro blood in their veins, who are in no 
way inferior, and in some cases superior, to some at least of their 
white brethren, in the discretion and ability with which they dis- 
charge their legislative functions ; while, throughout the mass of 
the negro population, there will be found, if the traveller takes the 
trouble of investigating for himself, an amount of smartness and 
intelligence which will in many cases surprise him. 

Popular sayings in common use among these descendants of the 
sons of Africa are ofttimes very amusing. ^' When cattle* lose tail, 
who for brush fly ?^' is the common negro form for pointing out 
how essential one person is to another : " Night no hab eye,^^ is 
the apology for a negro woman's evening dishabille : and " When 
cockroach gib dance, him no ask fowl,'' was the explanation given 
by a negro to a friend and myself, when charged by us with a 
breach of contract in not getting us an invitation to a " Dignity 
ball.'' 



CHAPTER lY. 



Be not afear'd, the Isle is full of noises, 

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not." 



" So freshly fair are everywhere the features of the scene, 
That earth appears a resting-place where angels might alight, 
As if sorrow ne'er a visitant in human breast had been, 
And the verdure of the summer months had never suffered blight." — ^ 

It was with much regret — a regret which only the conviction 
that the further progress in my journeyings was bringing me nearer 
to the time when I should be privileged to turn my face and steps 
homewards " from wandering on a foreign strand," that, at the 
hour of midnight, I embarked on board the small and very dirty 
sloop Henrietta, to sail from Antigua to St. Kitt's ; and the fact 
that even at that hour I was accompanied to the boat by sundry 
kind friends, whose acquaintance had enlivened my stay in the 

* Throughout the West Indies you seldom hear of a bull, an ox, a cow, &c. ; the 
■word is " cattle," used in the singular as well as in the plural. 



561 ST. KITT'S. 

island of Antigua, and who will ever endear the recollection of it, 
certainly did not tend to lessen my feelings of depression. 

Sailing down through the islands — or, in other words, going in the 
direction of the trade-wind — is a very easy matter ; and it was there- 
fore, despite the indifferent character of the Henrietta, (which cer- 
tainly would not have been classed A 1 at Lloyd's,) that early next 
forenoon, and after running through the "Narrows,^^ between St. 
Kitt's and Nevis, I came in sight of my destined port of Basseterre, 
in the truly lovely and romantic little island of St. Kitts. 

It had blown somewhat strongly during the night ; ^ and, pent up 
within the very limited accommodation of the little vessel, I had 
suffered a few hours of considerable discomfort. But as the day 
dawned, and brightened into sunshine, aoy feeling of depression was 
speedily dispelled. Indeed the scene would have gladdened the heart 
of an anchorite. The island of Nevis, with its lofty cone-like summit 
lying on the left ; St. Kitt's, with its fertile plains in near view, and 
the frowning summit of Mount Misery in the background, — a little 
rocky islet called ^' Booby Isle'^ Ijii^g between the two, and in the 
middle of the " Narrows," formed together an inspiriting view, par- 
ticularly as the sea between was studded over with numerous small 
fishing-boats under sail, the navigators of which displayed no little 
skill, as, occasionally racing with the Henrietta, they glided in and 
out, with easy swan-like motion, from under the high lands on the 
coasts of both the islands of Nevis and St. Kitt's. It was thus that 
we approached and arrived at the island of 

ST. CHEISTOPIIER'S, OR ST. KITT'S, 

Situated sixty miles west of Antigua, in north latitude 17° 15', and 
west longitude 63° 17', and deriving its name from the circumstance 
that the devout Colon and his followers saw, or imagined they saw, 
(which is just the same thing) in the extraordinary shape of the 
summit of its strangely named principal mountain, " Mount Misery," 
a resemblance to one man carrying another on his back ', while St. 
Christopher is generally painted as a giant carrying our Saviour. Of 
the population of St. Kitt's there has not been any very recent 
census ; but the general estimate of twenty-five thousand cannot be 
very far from correct. Its contents are about seventy square miles, ' 
and with this population, and within these confined limits, St. Kitt's 
contains as many of the elements of attraction as probably any other 
place within the line of the tropics. 

While, of late years, the attention of invalids, both in Europe and 
in America, seems to have been more directed than formerly to the 
West Indian Islands as places of sanitary resort, I observe a some- 
what prominent place has been assigned to the island of Jamaica. 



ST. KITT'S. 5*^ 

When I come to that part of my journeyings which treats of impres- 
sions and experiences in that romantic island, I trust, as I believe, 
it will not be found that I was insensible to the many beautiful and 
ofttimes awfully grand scenes with which the " Island of Springs" 
so plenteously abounds. But for the present I have to do with the 
fairy island of St. Kitt's ; and truth compels me to say that, tola re 
perspecta, looking back through the whole vista of my journeyings 
by land and by water, amid the luxuriant scenery of the tropics, my 
heart dwells upon St. Kitt's, and its scenery and society, with a 
peculiar pleasure and a heartfelt satisfaction. The very first view of 
the island is exceedingly pleasing and inspiriting. Basseterre, the 
capital, (for of course every island must have its capital,) is in itself 
but a poor town, or, if my Kittyfonian (for that, it seems, is the 
generic appellation given to the inhabitants of this isle) friends will 
forgive the expression, but a poor village ; but the valley in which 
Basseterre lies — there lies the charm ! Green velvet is the image 
that rises to the mind when I would seek to give an idea of the 
greenness of the lovely vale^ at the bottom of which stands the town 
of Basseterre. 

During the occupancy by the French of this part of the island, 
the town of Basseterre was erected by them, the English capital, 
*^ Sandy Point," being at the other end of the island ; and the choice 
of the site of Basseterre, as compared with that of Sandy Point, goes 
far to justify the Prenchman's sarcasm against my fellow-countrymen, 
that while nature has given to the children of La Belle Prance her 
gout, she has bequeathed to the sons of Albion only her gout. 

Were I to write of the climate and scenery of St. Kittys, according 
to the impressions that arise as they are now recalled — were I even 
to note down the simple memoranda regarding the island, which I 
find entered in my journal at the time — I fear I would seem to many 
to be using the language of eulogistic exaggeration. Warm the 
climate certainly is ; hot, ofttimes disagreeably so, at least in the 
town or in the valley. But that the sojourner in the tropics must 
lay his account with. But during those parts of the months of 
March and of April when I had the pleasure of sojourning in Govern- 
ment House in the island of St. Kitt's, I did not, on any occasion 
that I remember, oj? have noted, find the heat very oppressive even 
in the town or valley. While on the coast, or while riding up the 
gentle, grassy, verdant acclivities of the mountains, the breeze that 
constantly blows, or rather plays, around the traveller gives a deli- 
cious coolness to the balmy atmosphere, that must be felt to be 
appreciated. A better place for the winter sojourn of the invalid, 
whose lungs are too delicate, or too much impaired, to stand the 
bitter colds and rude blasts of northern climes, cannot possibly be 
conceived. With the American Madeira, Santa Cruz^ and the moun- 



58 ST. KITT'S. I 

tain salubrities of Jamaica, fresh in my recollection, I give the pre- 
ference to St. Christopher's ; and I trust, ere I close these descriptive 
sketches, to give at least some justifying grounds for my preference 
of this island, or of the immediately adjoining islet of Nevis, (and 
the two may be considered as one in this respect,) as a place of sani- 
tary resort. 

But while I thus vo-ite of the climate, I would write in still 
more enthusiastic terms of the scenery of St. Kitt's; and, reader, 
if you believe me not, I pray you read the eloquent description of 
Coleridge, and if you deny credence to us both, then I pray you 
make some apology for going to judge for yourself; for, rest as- 
sured that, until you have seen ^^ Nine-turn Grut,'^ in the island of 
St. Christopher's, and some of the deep and thickly wooded glens 
of this enchanting island, you have not seen some of the finest 
portions and most romantic scenes in this fair world of ours. 

It is not my intention to attempt anything like a detailed de- 
scription of the scenery which excited these observations. De- 
scription is not -mj forte. But there is one part of the island I 
cannot permit myself to refrain from describing ; and I am the 
more disposed to note down its memorabilia, from the fact that the 
writer I have already alluded to, Mr. Henry Nelson Coleridge, 
expresses his exceeding regret that he had not been able to find 
time to visit it. 

The scenery alluded to is that which presents itself in the course 
of the ride through and across the mountains, near the centre of 
the island, and which leads the visitor into a very remarkable flat 
plain, situated in the midst of the hill country, at an elevation of 
at least two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. 
This plain is said by Coleridge (on report) and others, to be simi- 
lar in its character to the plains between the Cordilleras of Upper 
Peru. In this place most of the fruits and vegetables of Europe 
may be and have been grown. The plain referred to rejoices in 
the cognomen of ^^Spooner's Level ;^' and to understand the char- 
acteristic features of the beautiful and romantic ride which leads 
you through it, the following short description of the formation of 
the island is necessary. 

The interior of St Kitt's may be said to be composed of a moun- 
tain, or rather of a congeries of mountains, drawing towards a 
centre and an apex, which latter is formed by the frowning crag 
and summit of "Mount Misery.^^ Towards this mount of evil 
name, the wood-crowned summits tend in every direction — split, 
splintered, and separated by deep fissures, chasms, rents, and glens 
— some of them with streamlets flowing at their bottoms, deep hid 
by the foliage from human vision, and only found to be existing 
by the trickling sound, or by the boy's expedient of throwing 



ST. KITT'S. 50 

down a stone and counting tlie moments ere tlic splasli indicates 
its arrival at the water. In crossing these ravines, so as to pass 
right through the island, from the one side of it to the other, by 
the narrow bridle-path which formed the line of demarcation dur- 
ing the joint occupation of England and of France, it is necessary 
to wind by an extremely tortuous course, up and down the sides 
of these ravines — all parts of these ravines (as indeed is nearly 
the whole congeries of mountains) being clothed and covered by a 
great variety of trees of great height, and generally of the most 
gigantic proportions. The mango, silk cotton-tree, bread-tree, 
bread-nut tree, palms of various kinds, cacao and cocoa-nut trees, 
tamarind-tree, red and white cedars, and a host of other tropical 
forest trees and flowering shrubs, clothe, crest, and adorn the 
mountain sides almost to their very summits, and the deep dells to 
their very lowest and innermost recesses — affording ample hiding- 
places for the various members of the monkey tribe, which are nu- 
merous in St. Kitt's, and which may occasionally be seen, at dif- 
ferent points, as they scamper off on the signal being given by the 
sentinel or fugleman, who is first seen, being stationed by the gene- 
ral troop to give timely warning of approaching danger. Apropos 
of monkeys. It ig" not easy to disabuse the negro of the convic- 
tion that the monkey is not endowed with powers of reason, similar, 
if not €qual, to those of man. Sambo may not now carry his 
views the length of maintaining that the monkey's refusal to make 
use of the gift of speech, proceeds from the fear that, if he spoke, 
Massa would set him to work : but on several occasions I have 
heard the negro and coloured boatmen ascribe to the monkey tribe 
powers of memory and of reason little short of human. Indeed 
it is difficult to hear such tales, oft repeated and seemingly authen- 
ticated, without admitting that this "caricature on humanity^' 
trenches in some degree on man's "high prerogative" of reason. 
That the monkeys bury their dead in regularly prepared graves, 
and that they even attend to funeral processions and obsequies, as 
men do, is a statement I have ofttimes heard made, and attempted 
to be authenticated by the averment that, the assertor had seen 
them engaged in the " duty," as well as enforced by the argument 
that the dead body of a monkey is never seen in the woods. An- 
other equally prevalent belief is, that if the tribe is offended in 
imj way by a particular party, they will find out that particular 
person's ground, and under cloud of night root up his sweet pota- 
toes, and otherwise despoil his possessions. At all events, one fact 
is well known, and it is this, that the gestures of an irate monkey 
are very much those of an angry man, and as emphatically, and 
by the same signs, indicate a hope and an intention of future re- 
venge. A friend with whom I had been staying had some time 



00 ST. KITT'S. I 

previously shot a young monkey, and lie described the threatening 
attitudes of the mother, shaking her fist and otherwise plainly pro- 
mising an hour of retributive justice^ as something very like the 
act ons of a human being. 

But to return to the scenery of the ride to " Spooner's Level/' 
Mention has been already made of the variety and magnificence of 
the trees and shrubs. Some of these have been referred to by 
their names or kinds. It were, however, to leave out one of the 
characteristics of the scene, not to make special mention of the 
tree or tree-like ferns, although many of my readers may feel some 
surprise at finding these classed among the genus ^' arbor.^^ Whe- 
ther the ferns belonged to the vegetable or to the woody kingdom, 
they formed very striking objects in the scenery under description, 
and fully and ably sustained the character of forest trees. They 
were occasionally seen separately, but much more frequently in 
thick groves standing like palm-trees — 

" With feathery tufts like plumage rare ;"^ 

their stems of fifteen to eighteen inches thick, and reaching to a 
height of fifty or sixty feet, with their branching tops covering over 
the head, like an umbrella. Nor are these trees or tree-like ferns 
only beautiful ; they are also occasionally applied to useful purposes. 
The wood, though soft, is durable, and makes tolerable supports 
when the weight to be borne is not very great. They are also some- 
times used for fences. 

About midway between the two sides of the island, is the place 

1 have already mentioned as " Spooner's Level" — a plain, or rather 
two plains, each of several hundred acres in extent, covered with ex- 
cellent pasture, interspersed here and there with patches of " guava 
bushes," and, being at the elevation before stated, luxuriating in a 
climate of a cool temperature, the luxury of which can only be fully 
appreciated by those who have been previously broiled by the mid- 
day heat of the plains below. 

I was told that, not many years ago, this spot had been chosen by 
an island resident, as the location where to spend his ^' honeymoon ^^ 
and, solitary and rather inaccessible as it was, I thought the selection 
argued no small amount of good taste, either on the part of the lady 
fair or of the gentleman, or perchance of both. 

The pathway up to " the level," and again down to the road on 
the other side, is narrow, and sometimes a little difficult without being 
dangerous. The hurricane of 1848, the vestiges of which are to be 
seen in most of the islands forming the Leeward group, had blown 
down some of the forest trees, and thrown them across the road ; and, 
to overcome these obstructions, it was on two occasions necessary for 
myself and friend, Mr. R , to take the saddles off the horses, 



NEVIS. Qi 

and cause the animals almost to creep through beneath the trunks of 
the trees that stretched across the road. On clearing the woods, and 
at various parts of the ride, there is to be seen one of the most beau- 
tiful marine views which the mind can conceive. The islands of 
Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Eustatia, Saba, St. Martin's and St. 
Bartholomew, all reposing in the bosom of the clear tropic sea ; that 
sea generally in a state of heaving quietude, and the whole enlivened 
with ships under sail, seen here and there in near view, or on the 
very verge of the far-off horizon. 

Having descended from the level on the other side by a tortuous 
mountain path, a ride of eight miles or so takes the tourist to Bas- 
seterre; or, turning to the left, he will be well repaid by riding 
round the island by the shores of Deep Bay, and through the town 
of Sandy Point ; and thence onwards to Basseterre, passing by and 
under the romantic rock of Brimstone Hill, on which the fortifica- 
tions and garrisons are placed. 

Among the chief recommendations of St. Kitt's, as a place of 
temporary residence for the invalid, I reckon its vicinity to the 
island of 

NEVIS, 

Situated in north latitude 17° 14', and west longitude 63° 3' ; some- 
what less than half the size, and containing less than a moiety of 
the population, of St. Christopher's. The chief town of Nevis, 
Charlestown, is exactly eleven miles from Basseterre, and the latter 
is just about the same distance from Sandy Point, the other town 
in St. Kitt's. Basseterre is therefore fairly situated for being a 
centre and capital for both islands; and the fact that two small 
islands, so situated, should each have its separate machinery of 
government, does strike the mind of a stranger as something very 
unnecessary, and unnecessarily expensive, if not absurd. The Gro- 
vernor of Nevis is called the President, while St. Kitt's is worthily 
presided over by a lieutenant-governor, both being under the gene- 
ral government of the Leeward island group. But both islands 
have their respective houses of assembly, with relative staffs ; and, 
without offence to the inhabitants of Nevis, I trust I may record it 
as my opinion — as well as an opinion I have heard generally ex- 
pressed, even in influential quarters — that it were impossible to 
imagine a more obvious reformation than to merge the assembly 
and courts of Nevis in those of St. Kitt's, one lieutenant-governor 
presiding over both. 

A sail of a couple of hours brings the voyager from Basseterre 
to Charlestown in Nevis ; and after inspecting the town, (which is 
certainly a poor affair, and will not occupy much time,) the visitor 

6 



62 NEVIS. 

will probably, if not naturally, direct his attention to the mineral 
hot-water baths, and the boarding establishment connected with 
them. These are situated about a mile to the south of Charles- 
town; and, before setting out to visit them, the invalid visitor 
should first, if he can, provide himself with a horse — walking ex- 
ercise in the tropics being but seldom agreeable to the European, 
or at least to the invalid one. These hot mineral baths are two in 
number : the largest and hottest being in size about twenty-one feet 
long by fifteen feet broad, and of a temperature of about 100° Fah- 
renheit, and the smallest and coldest being somewhat less, and its 
temperature about 50°. Both are beautifully and transparently 
clear, and have a singular power of giving a semblance of white- 
ness, and even beauty, such as is ascribed by Sir Francis Head, in 
his amusing and able work, entitled Bubbles from the Brimnens of 
Nassau, to some of the Grerman spas. Being warm, they are nei- 
ther of them of much density ; and the water, which may be drunk 
as well as bathed in, has an agreeable flavour, and leaves an im- 
pression on the palate such as one would expect from drinking 
boiled soda-water. These baths are much lauded for the cure or 
alleviation of rheumatic complaints, and much resorted to for all 
sorts and descriptions of ailments. I felt, particularly when in the 
hottest of them, an elevation of spirits which was singularly plea- 
sant, and which left an agreeable effect — a feeling of having had 
strength imparted to my frame for all the rest of the day. 

After leaving the baths, and paying (if not a resident in the lodg- 
ing-house mentioned below) the moderate charge of four bits, or Is. 
4d. for the very luxurious enjoyment, the attention of the visitor, 
who is here for the first time, will probably be next attracted to the 
lodging-house erected in the immediate vicinity, and of which the 
bathing establishment is an appendage. This lodging-house is a large 
massive stone building, calculated and fitted to accommodate about 
fifty boarders. It was built when slavery was in existence ; and al- 
though the fact of slaves being employed in its erection renders it 
somewhat difficult to ascertain the real amount expended in its con- 
struction, it is said that at least £30,000 was so spent ; and the state- 
ment will not appear at all incredible to any one who has visited it 
and noted its extent. The building has, however, obviously been 
erected on a scale much too ambitious. It was built, in its present 
gigantic proportions, by its first proprietor — a Mr. Huggins— proba- 
bly under the idea that the celebrity of the mineral baths, and the 
salubrity of the climate of the island, might attract visitors from all 
parts of the Archipelago — making the island of Nevis what it has 
some pretentions to be considered, the Montpelier of the West In- 
dies. If such were the hopes of the enterprising founder of tlje 
odging-house and bathing establishment of Nevis, they have be^J? 



NEVIS. 63 

grievously disappointed. I could not learn that, at any time, the 
mammoth lodging-house was a prosperous establishment. In the 
present almost ruined condition of the island, and under the depress- 
ing influences which have, especially since 1846, spread their baleful 
eifects over the British West India possessions, I only found the Nevis 
lodging-house and baths in the condition I ought to have expected, 
when I found them in a semi-ruinous and nearly deserted state. Still 
I was not prepared for the scene of desolation they exhibited. With 
all nature smiling around, and looking to the many attractions for 
rich invalids which this lovely islet presented, I was deeply impressed 
with the conviction that the ruined condition of such an establish- 
ment furnished a practical commentary on the wisdom of that policy 
which, in the first place, paid twenty millions sterling, or thereby, to 
put down slavery in our own colonies, and then encouraged other 
powers, less scrupulous, to continue to encourage slavery, by allowing 
productions, so produced and manufactured, to compete in our home 
markets with commodities produced and manufactured by the hands 
of freemen. 

Notwithstanding, however, its present state, the lodging-house of 
Nevis and its adjacent baths offer a very tempting location for an in- 
valid or other visitor ; and with the aid of a servant, and the society 
of a companion, an invalid might here make himself or herself very 
comfortable, even for a stay of many months' duration. Indeed I 
was, during my stay in Nevis, much struck with its attractions as a 
place of sanitary resort ; and most heartily did I agree with an offi- 
cial friend, of high rank, when he observed, with reference to the 
temporary residence of her Majesty — the late lamented Queen- 
dp wager of England — in the island of Madeira, that were those whose 
finances could afford it to devote a few hundreds to introducing the 
elements of comfort into the lodging-house in Nevis, they would find 
it a fully more healthful location than the more frequented island of 
the north. Nor will the remark seem extravagant to any one who 
has visited Nevis. While the greater length of the voyage gives it 
an advantage over its more popular rival — inasmuch as it seems now 
generally conceded that the sea voyage, particularly when the sail is on 
the summer sea of the West Indian Archipelago at the proper season, 
and under the benign influence of the tropical breezes, has a most bene- 
ficial effect in the cure of many complaints, particularly of pulmonary 
ones — the beauties of Nevis, as an island, are no whit mferior to 
those of Madeira. Its valleys are as fertile, and its hills as grand ; 
and it is uniformly verdant and beautiful, even in its present 
depressed condition. From the smallness of its size, as well as from 
the height of its hills, it enjoys, for the greater part of the year, a 
climate comparatively cool, and of acknowledged salubrity. In fine, 
I feel it is only discharging a duty I owe to others to testify my con- 



64: INVALIDS, AND THEIR TREATMENT. 

viction of the fact, that few places on the globe furnish a more ad- 
vantageous retreat for parties labouring under pulmonary complaints, 
than does this self-same island of Nevis, with its overgrown lodging- 
house, and its delightful, invigorating, and transparent mineral hot 
baths. 

But it is right that I should add that in no case should the invalid 
be allowed to come to the West Indies, without previous preparation 
being made for his, and (especially) for her reception — a caution 
which I the more readily add, because, according to my own expe- 
rience, it is but too much neglected in cases where the advice to go 
abroad is given. There is naturally, in the newness as well as dis- 
tance of the scene, much that is calculated to depress; and this de- 
pression is ofttimes so much aggravated by the feeling of being alone 
among strangers, that I have known, within the limits of my own 
personal knowledge, several cases where I was satisfied that the patient 
had suffered more from depression of spirits in the tropical climate, 
than he or she would, in all probability, have done from the disease in 
the northern one : to which add a fact that truth compels me to men- 
tion, and the mention of which my West Indian friends will forgive, that 
at first sight, at least. West Indian mansions — particularly those of the 
class of domipuhlici — have to an English eye an appearance which 
is waste and comfortless, and which is calculated to strike a chill into 
the heart of one debilitated by bodily suffering. In every case 
where it is practicable, I would therefore recommend, that the patient 
visiting the West Indies on account of health should be preceded or 
accompanied by a European servant ; and, at least in the case of a 
lady, that they should also have a friend with them. The very feel- 
ing that death might arrive in a foreign land, far from friends and 
home, often tends to work out the fatal result. With such adjuncts 
to comfort and happiness as I have mentioned, however, I cannot 
conceive a better location for the weak, languid sufferer, than this 
lovely islet of the Caribean Sea, or (for its near vicinity makes them 
almost one) its somewhat larger neighbour, the island of St. Kittys. 
Even Coleridge says, when writing of Nevis, that he would often 
'^ run down the trades and winter within the tropics,^' although he 
would prefer Madeira for a continued residence, on account of its 
vicinity to England. He adds, that he " partly engaged to marry a 
lady in Madeira, when he and she came to the years of discretion.''^ 
Having no such cogent reason as that last mentioned, to influence 
my resolve, I may be pardoned for claiming for Nevis at least an 
equality of attractions. 

On leaving the baths, and again mounting his steed, (if he has the 
good fortune to have one,) the visitor will find himself in excellent 
condition for a ride round part of or through the island — visiting the 
Banyan tree described by various travellers, or such other scenes as 



ORIGIN OF ITS NAME. g5 

his own or friends' taste may induce him to visit; before setting out 
to do which, he may, perchance, have his sense of the proprieties 
somewhat violated, by observing a number of black and coloured 
women standing in the stream of hot water, as it escapes from the 
baths, washing clothes in this caldron of nature's heating : themselves 
the while, if not exactly in puris naturalihus, at least too scantily 
attired for European notions of decency. 

Nevis, like her other sister islands, received her name from the 
great Colon — 

" Who scanned Columbia througli the wave;" 

and various are the accounts given of the reasons that induced the 
choice of such a name. The then existence of a volcano, now ex- 
tinct, is the supposition of Edwards ; and other accounts equally 
erudite are given of the matter. One occurred to myself, which, if 
not the sound one, seems to me to have at least as much probability 
or plausibility in it as the rest. When first visiting this island, both 
when going and returning, and again on numberless other occasions, 
when looking at it as well from the sea as from the neighbouring 
island of St. Christopher's, I observed a large fleecy white cloud, 
which, like a canopy, encircled the summit, about the centre of the 
island of Nevis; and so often did this appearance present itself, and 
so truly did it merit for the hills on which it rested the 
" Candidum nive " 

assigned by Horace as a characteristic of Mount Soracte, that I could 
not avoid the conviction that such a semblance, seen by Columbus 
and his fellow voyagers, accounted satisfactorily for their thus nam- 
ing this island of the tropics by a name suggestive of snow. At all 
events, there was something of interest in thus throwing the mind 
back into the past, and attempting to fathom, in any respect, the 
motives that influenced the great discoverer, and to suppose that the 
sight which greets you was the same or similar to the one seen 

" When first his drooping sails Columbus furl'd, 
And sweetly rested in another world." 

When writing of Antigua, I have had occasion to speak of the 
state of the Church in these islands of the Leeward group; and that 
in so doing I used terms of unquahfied praise, is only due to the 
high standing for learning, piety, and zeal of the body of reverend 
gentlemen, who are now to be found discharging the pastoral office 
in the British West India colonies. But if an anecdote I once heard 
in Nevis be well founded, there must have been a time when such 
praise would have been misplaced. There was unquestionably a 
time when, not only in impetuous Erin, but in most other parts of 
Great Britain and her possessions, the pistol was supposed to be, at 

6*^ 



66 LA.W COURTS. 

least for laymen, the most appropriate weapon for deciding questions 
of right and wrong. That this " code of honour" was ever acted on 
by the clergy in the mother country, I have never heard ; but, if the 
tale I heard be true, it seems that the impetuousness of the Creole 
blood had induced some one of their colonial brethren to improve 
upon the general practice, and, when contradicted by a reverend 
brother on some questions of Grecian or other antiquities, to offer to 
bring the matter to the usual arbitrament of the pistol. The epistle 
in which the challenge was given was a simple intimation of the 
offence, and challenge to meet at or near Brimstone hill. But alas 
for the " chance of war !" The blood of the respondent was either 
cooler, or his feeling of propriety, common sense, and religion 
stronger; and, perceiving the absurdity of the whole affair, his 
answer, endorsed on the belligerent note, was simply, " Keverend 
Sir, I am sorry I cannot gratify you. In point of fact, I was born 
a coward, and bred a parson." The date of this deathblow to duel- 
ling, at least in the church, was not given. No doubt, " ^twas a long 
time ago ;" but I thought the story worth recording, were it only 
because it is one which, if it ever did happen, will certainly never 
happen again. 

In Antigua, and again in St. Kitt's, I had opportunities of seeing 
on several occasions the courts of law sitting for the discharge of 
judicial business, both civil and criminal. The barristers who prac- 
tise in the colonies generally practise also as solicitors or attorneys. 
Such is likewise the case in the United States of America. In Great 
Britain, and particularly I think in Scotland, there is a prevalent 
impression that the ends of justice are promoted by the separation 
of the legal profession into its two branches of solicitors and attor- 
neys, and barristers or advocates, and making the practice of ttie one 
branch incompatible with that of the other. That this separation 
ofttimes makes the obtaining of justice, by means of law, a much 
more costly affair than it otherwise would be, is very obvious. But 
if, by such division, a purer legal atmosphere, so to speak, is obtain- 
ed, it cannot be said that the enhanced cost of the article is money 
thrown away. I cannot, however, agree in the opinion that the divi- 
sion alluded to is essential, or even of importance to the ends of 
justice. Such had long been my opinion formed on principles ap- 
plicable to the state of matters in the mother country. For other 
reasons, to detail which would be out of place here, I would regard 
the breaking down of the division I have referred to as a matter to 
be regretted. But I certainly cannot see how the division itself in 
any way tends to purity of judicial procedure; and my own expe- 
rience in the West Indian colonies, and in the United States of 
America, confirmed the opinions I had formed in this respect: 
while, as regards the solicitor-barristers of the West Indies, I can 



JURY SYSTEM. 67 

most honestly confirm the statement of an earlier writer, that there 
is among them the same abstinence from irregular interruption, the 
same urbanity to each other, and the same cheerful obedience to that 
decision which the constitution of the country makes binding on 
them, which severe critics have predicated of the junior (he might 
have also said ^^and senior'^) barristers of the mother-land. Were 
I disposed to be critical, I might add that the only thing I thought 
objectionable was the number of " counseF' engaged on either side. 
In a case of ejectment, involving pecuniary value of somewhat incon- 
siderable amount, I saw no less than four gentlemen of the long 
robe engaged for the prosecution, while an equal number conducted 
the defence. This must add much to the costliness of the verdict ; 
but this fault is one which is too often committed at home, to justify 
any severity of criticism towards our colonial brethren. With the 
exception of the wig, which is dispensed with both by bench and bar 
in the West Indies, for the very obvious reason that the heat of the 
climate would render the use of it insupportable, the advocates in 
these colonies are robed and otherwise dressed like their brethren at 
home ; and the whole judicial procedure is conducted much in the 
same way — even to the occasional exhibition either of an unaccount- 
able amount of credulity, or of incredulity, on the part of the ^^gen- 
tlemen of the jury" impannelled to try a civil cause, or to inquire 
into a crime. Here the English rule, requiring unanimity on the 
part of the members of the jury, prevails; and the effect is to pro- 
duce some odd scenes of acquittal, in the face of evidence amounting 
almost to demonstration. Such results must occasionally be pro- 
duced by the adoption of a rule like this, particularly in places in- 
habited by mixed races, and where strong prejudices of colour and 
otherwise interfere to obscure perception or to warp the judgment. 
And although the Scottish system to which I had been most accus- 
tomed has some disadvantages, I felt that it would be better to allow 
a majority to rule, rather than permit the common sense but weaker 
stomachs and powers of endurance of the many, to be overcome by 
the head-strong prejudices, bull-headed obstinacy, and ability for 
fasting of the few. There may be some plausible objections to 
allowing the question of crime or no crime to be decided by a bare 
majority of twelve men; but assuredly there are more objections to 
allowing the conscientious opinions of eleven to be overruled by the 
dishonesty or bigotry of one, whose powers of endurance enable him 
to withstand the effects of fasting and confinement for an unusually 
great length of time. 

Among the memorabilia of St. Kitt's, I find in my note-book 
honourable mention made of a somewhat singular stone, which is 
to be seen almost on the very summit of a remarkable and singu- 
larly beautiful hill, called by the more appropriate than euphonious 



6?g EARTHQUAKES AND HURRICANES. 

name of Monkey Hill ; whicli hill may be said to form the southern 
termination of the range which traverses the island. Monkey Hill 
is in itself a verdant object, with green, and consequently beau- 
tiful, cane-fields or brakes, extending to its very base ; and on the 
summit of it stands the large stone referred to, in form and shape 
something like a cradle, and having part of the top hollowed out, 
so as to give countenance to the legend that it was used by the 
fierce Caribs (who inhabited these islands at and after the date of 
their discovery by Columbus) for the immolation and burning of 
their human sacrifices. 

Brimstone Hill, on which the British Grovernment has erected a 
very strong and handsome fort, is another object of interest, situ- 
ated as it is on the sea-shore, detached from the contiguous moun- 
tains, and precipitous on all sides save that of its approach. And 
the ^' salt ponds" to be seen in the southern extremity of the island, 
and to which the readiest, if not the only, access is by sea, should 
not be left unvisited. 

Neither in St. Christopher's nor in Nevis (if I except the lodg- 
ing-house of the latter) did I observe, so many marks of the ravages 
of the earthquake of 1843, or of the hurricane of 1848, as I had 
previously done in Antigua. But both suffered, and suffered 
greatly — so greatly, that I feel sure that, had the extent of loss 
thereby occasioned to the already previously depressed planters and 
proprietors been accurately and generally known in the mother 
country, some special aid would have been granted to lessen the 
amount of suffering and repair the damage sustained. 

It is certainly paying a fearful price and penalty for their love- 
liness of climate, that the West Indian Islands, and especially the 
Caribean Islands, should be so frequently visited by these scourges 
of nature — the hurricane and the earthquake. And after listening 
to the many interesting details I heard during my temporary so- 
journ in these islands, I felt more fully able to appreciate the lines 
of the poet, — 

" Oft o'er the Eden Islands of the west, 
In floral pomp and verdant beauty drest, 
Koll the dark clouds of heaven's awakened ire; 
Thunder and earthquake, whirlwind, flood and fire, 
Midst reeling mountains, and departing plains. 
Tell the pale world 'the God of vengeance reigns.' " 

Although hurricanes such as have devastated these islands are 
fortunately of very rare occurrence — so rare as to permit the hope 
that the visitation of 1848 may prove the last for many years — 
yet, during the months of July, August, and September, such is 
the tendency to sudden storms, that these months are characterised 
as the hurricane months ; these hurricanes, it is generally supposed, 
being caused by a rarefaction of the air produced by the previously- 



TORTOLA. 69. 

existing great heat^ and the colder air of the surrounding region 
rushing in to fill up the vacuum. 

During my stay in St. Kitt's — where I had the good fortune to 
enjoy the superior comforts and society of Government House, and 
the kind hospitality of the Lieutenant-Grovernor, his Excellency 
Robert Mackintosh, a gentleman himself distinguished, and the 
son of the late eminently distinguished jurist and single-minded 
statesman. Sir James Mackintosh (as well as the editor of his 
works) — the island was visited by the British naval squadron, car- 
rying the flag of Lord Dundonald ; and also by an American war 
frigate, the G-ermantown, and by a Dutch vessel of war. Taking 
advantage of such opportunities, or of the opportunities afforded 
by the numerous small vessels trading among the islands, the 
visitor may, from St. Kitt's, visit the neighbouring smaller islands 
of St. Eustatius, St. Bartholomew, and Saba — returning to St. 
Kitt's and taking the English steamer, or such other opportunity 
as may occur, to run downwards to St. Thomas and onwards on his 
route to the north. If as fortunate in point of weather as I was, 
the sail from St. Kitt's to St. Thomas cannot be otherwise than 
productive of much gratification. Leaving Saba and St. Bartholo- 
mew, &c., on the right, the sail is up to and among the Virgin 
islands, past Virgin Gorda, and into the Bay of Boadtown in the 
island of Tortola, where the steamer touches and lands her mails. 
At the time I visited the scene, it was in the bright light of a sum- 
mer morning — the sea was calm and the wind at rest ; but in a 
dark night, and in tempestuous weather, I could easily understand 
that it would require some considerable skill in navigation to guide 
a vessel safely through such and so many difficulties. But all dan- 
ger is now avoided, in so far at least as the steamships are concerned, 
by timing their arrivals at such places, and by taking the outside 
passage when the night is dark or the sea rough. 

Of these numerous islands of the Virgin group — which belong 
partly to Denmark and partly to England, and of which there are 
said to be no less than thirty, including small as well as large — 
the island of 

TORTOLA 

is the chief. It belongs to England, and is in length about eighteen 
miles by about seven in breadth, and contains a population exceed- 
ing ten thousand inhabitants. 

Among these Virgin islands, but standing a little apart from the 
rest, between the Danish islands of St. Thomas and Santa Cruz, 
and in west longitude 64° 35', and north latitude .18°, there is to 
be found a large island, known in the locality by the cognomen of 



70 ST. THOMAS. 

Crab Island, but laid down in the maps as the Isle of Boriquen, of 
which I was destined to hear a good deal, but which I found no 
opportunity of visiting, although I much desired to do so. This 
island is nearly as large as Santa Cruz, and is said to be exceed- 
ingly fertile. In the Grazetteers it is generally laid down as unin- 
habited ; but this is not strictly correct. In former days, when 
this group of islands formed the headquarters of piracy, Bor'quen 
or Crab Island was the abode, from time to time, of different bands 
of buccaneers or rovers ; and many are the dreadful tales that are 
told as to the scenes of which this Crab Island (so called from the 
large number of land-crabs found in it) was the theatre. Of late 
years, the mode of its occupation has been scarcely less obnoxious. 
Even now, it cannot be said to have any fixed population ; and 
being claimed, or understood to be claimed, by Great Britain, by 
Spain, and by Denmark, the chief use made of it is by slavers, 
who occasionally resort to it under the pretence of watering, but 
in reality to tranship their supplies, dispose of their cargoes of 
slaves, or elude the vigilance of the British cruisers. Infinitely 
better were it that it were in the possession and government of 
England or even of Denmark, now that the latter has followed the 
example of England in emancipating her slaves. At present it is 
a comparative wilderness, and misused for the vilest of purposes — 
the traffic in human flesh. Under proper government, Boriquen 
or Crab Island might support a population nearly as large as that 
of Santa Cruz, in circumstances of comfort. 

After leaving Tortola, the next place at which the English 
steamer touches is the well-known Danish island of St. Thomas. 
But the approach to a place so ^^ famed in story," and the property 
of another and a friendly power, deserves, and will from me receive, 
a separate chapter. 



CHAPTER Y. 



" Vines with climbing branches growing, 
I Plants with goodly burthens bowing." 

Shakspeare. 
" To regions where, in spite of sin and woe, 
Traces of Eden are still seen below ; 
Where mountain, river, forest, field and grove, 
Remind him of his Maker's power and love." 

COWPER. 



The Danish island of 

ST. THOMAS 



Is situated in longitude 65° 26' west, and in latitude 18° 22' 
north. The capital, indeed the only town in the island, is also 



ITS PROSPERITY. 71 

called St. Thomas ; and I question if there be, within the "West 
Indian Archipelago, (and those who have visited these islands know 
how extensive a catalogue of beauty these words comprehend,) a 
scene more exquisite than is the view of the town and bay of St. 
Thomas, as seen either from the sea, or as viewed from the summit 
of the hill rising immediately above the town. The view from 
seaward was seen by me first, and it certainly was singularly beau- 
tiful. The bay at the head of which the town lies is almost circu- 
lar, the entrance being by a neck guarded by two forts. In front 
of you lies the clean, bright town, situated at the bottom of the 
bay, on the acclivities, and in the ravines, formed by the three 
limbs of a hill about twelve hundred feet high, which rises imme- 
diately from the shore. Although in reality built in the form of a 
square, or rather of a parallelogram, the spectator, in approaching 
the town of St. Thomas from the sea, has the impression that this 
exceedingly pretty town is built in that of three triangles — an ap- 
pearance which arises from the fact that, as you thus approach it, 
you only see those parts that are built on the three projecting 
limbs of the hill, those parts lying in the ravines being for a time 
hid from view. The effect is very pleasing. The hills behind, 
the numerous jed roofs, the white houses, and the general appear- 
ance (at some distance) of the cultivation, give St. Thomas' some- 
thing of the aspect of the town of Funchal, in the island of 
Madeira ; and if the greater grandeur of the hill, at the bottom of 
which the capital of the ^' flor d'oceano " stands, gives it the advan- 
tage in this respect, St. Thomas' has infinitely the advantage in 
point of regularity, order, and, above all, in an attention to cleanli- 
ness. 

The importance of St. Thomas', as a place of trade and com- 
merce, is too well known to justify extended reference to it here. 
It is pre-eminently a mercantile town. Indeed, if the shortness of 
my residence within it would justify criticism at all, I would say 
that it is only the fact of its being so, of its inhabitants being too 
entirely devoted to the crush and turmoil of business, that forms 
an objection to it as a place of tropical sojourn. St. Thomas' is 
what is called a free port, nearly every description of goods being 
admitted at one uniform rate of duty, which is small, being little 
more than one per cent. Except during the temporary occupation 
of the island by England, from 1807 till 1814, St. Thomas' has 
for a long time been in the possession of Denmark. The town 
possesses a news-room, an ice-house, several churches of imposing 
structure, and a boarding-house on a somewhat gigantic scale. 
But, as above mentioned, its distinguishing characteristics are as a 
place of trade, — a fact evinced by no circumstance more strongly 
than by the great number and large extent of the stores of the 



72 SEAWARD VIEW. 1 

mercliants, and the immense piles of valuable mercliandize wliicli 
they are seen to contain. The merchants of St. Thomas' have long 
enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, a large amount of prosperity ; and 
their hospitalities are on a scale commensurate with their wealth 
and importance. 

In the interior of the island, or even Iby riding round about as 
well as through it, there is not much to be seen. The time occu- 
pied, however, in so seeing it, is not long, and the visitor should 
on no account leave the island without having once at least, if not 
much oftener, enjoyed the very splendid panoramic view which is 
to be had from the summit of the hill which stands over the town. 
Through the kindness of his Excellency Yon Oxholm,|the Lieu- 
tenant-governor of St. Thomas', to whom I was favoured with an 
introduction, and whose courtesy and kindness I have sincere plea- 
sure in thus acknowledging, I was enabled to visit the interior of 
the island on the back of a good English hunter. I had previously 
ascended the mountain immediately above the town, and enjoyed 
the magnificent panoramic view I have before alluded to. Below, 
and in the immediate foreground, lay the town of St. Thomas, with 
the numerous shipping in the harbour and at the landing-places, 
and the clean Danish forts, with the flag of Denmark conspicuous 
from their flag-staffs; a little beyond, the calm clear sea, with 
numerous sails cruising in every direction ; an archipelago of islets 
lying scattered around, reposing on the bosom of the mighty deep ; 
and the verdant island of Santa Cruz in the distance ; and the 
still larger island of Porto Rico, seen dimly and as a cloud on the 
verge of the horizon, all combined to form one of the finest sea 
views that it has been my good fortune to witness in any part of 
the world. During my ten days' stay in St. Thomas', I visited the 
scene several times, and on each occasion was more and more im- 
pressed with its beauty. Indeed, when but a short way up the 
hill, and when enjoying the hospitalities of my kind friends Messrs. 

M n, senior and junior, Mr. C ie, &c., in their luxurious 

retreats, perched, almost like nests, a considerable way up the ac- 
clivity on which part of the town is built — I was daily enchanted 
with the loveliness of the scene as it exhibited itself from the win- 
dows, even at that height. But, to see it in full perfection, the 
summit of the mountain must be attained. One thing struck me 
forcibly, and now recurs vividly to my recollection ; and it is the 
remarkable clearness of the water in the creeks or inlets with 
which the shores of St. Thomas' are indented all around, and 
which, in days now happily gone by, (and, thanks to the power of 
steam, never likely to return,) offered places of convenient retreat 
to the numerous pirates who infested these seas and islands. When 
standing at an elevation of certainly not less than five or six hun- 



SANTA CRUZ. 73 

dred feet above the level of the sea, I could discern large fish, as 
they swam about far down in the depths of the lagoon — such was 
the clearness both of the atmosphere and of the water. 

On the occasion on which I was politely allowed by the governor 
the use of his stud, I proceeded, accompanied by one of his Excel- 
lency's servants, right through and round a great part of the island. 
Although, on the whole, St. Thomas' is certainly a very arid spot — 
affording, in this respect, a strong contrast to the larger Danish island 
of Santa Cruz, to be immediately described — I found much, in the 
course of this ride, which I would not have wished to leave un visited. 
The gigantic cactus and aloe, growing in all the wild freedom of 
untamed and unchecked nature — the former attaining the height of 
thirty feet and upwards, and many of the latter having stems of 
twelve and even fifteen feet high — and the numerous other tropical 
shrubs and trees, luxuriating as it were in the most fantastic shapes 
and conformations, constituted a scene of much novelty if not of 
great interest. Again was I struck with the adaptation of St. Thomas' 
for the villanies of piracy. In these numerous lagoons, bays, and 
inlets — most of them clothed thickly to and over the water's edge by 
the deadly, dark-green mangrove — and in the numerous rocks and 
reefs which line the shore, the marauder had a ready place of con- 
cealment before, as well as of retreat after, the attack. The days of 
piracy in these seas are, however, now numbered among the things 
that were. At least attempts of a piratical nature are extremely 
rare. But only a few years ago, some relics or reminiscences of the 
infamous trade might have been seen in this island, in the skeleton 
remains of parties, who had been condemned for piracy at St. Thomas', 
bleaching in the sun, as a warning to others who might be disposed 
to adopt similar courses. 

On returning from this ride, I had the pleasure of seeing. the 
scenery I have already described — viz. the view from the brow of the 
hill at the bottom of which the town is built — under a new phase, 
namely, under the influence of a tropical sunset. 

The English mail steam-packet does not call at the other larger and 
more beautiful, as well as much more productive Danish island of 

ST. CROIX, OR SANTA CRUZ, 

But there are opportunities of visiting it to be had from St. Thomas' 
(from which it is distant about forty miles) at least twice a-week, by 
excellent sailing packets trading regularly for the conveyance of pas- 
sengers and goods, at a very moderate charge. Sure am I that the 
stranger who visits St. Thomas', and leaves the Archipelago without 
also visiting Santa Cruz, will have great reason to regret his doing 
so. Santa Cruz, or St. Croix, as it is more frequently called, lies 

7 



74 ITS ROADS AND SCENERY. 

about forty miles to the south-east of St. Thomas*, in longitude 
65° 28' west, and latitude 17° 45' north. The island is about thirty 
miles long by eight or ten miles broad. It is extremely fertile, and 
very verdant and beautiful ', so that it has been not inaptly termed 
the " garden of the West Indies.** From the salubrity of the island, 
and its convenience of access from the shores of the great republic of 
the United States, it is much visited by the Americans as a place of 
sanitary resort; and, in a very comfortable boarding-house at Frede- 
rickstadt, St, Croix, (Mrs. Rodgers') I found several invalids from 
the United States of America sojourning for the benefit of their 
health. Nor would it be easy to point out a location better adapted 
for the restoration of the pulmonary patient. The climate is warm, 
but by no means enervatingly so ; and, save during the middle of 
the day — when, of course, the visitor for health and pleasure is under 
no necessity to expose himself or herself to the unmitigated influence 
of the sun's rays — I did not find the heat at all oppressive or un- 
pleasant ; while the verdure of the scenery — which, even at the time 
of my visit, and although the island was then sufiering from a three 
months' drought, had a much fresher appearance than almost any of 
the islands I had yet visited — was exceedingly remarkable. The 
great beauty and excellence of the roads ; the superiority and general 
excellence of the society ; and the salubrity of the sea-breeze, which 
is almost constantly blowing, are additional circumstances of induce- 
ment to make Santa Cruz a place of general resort. Indeed the 
excellence of the roads which coast the island and traverse it in every 
direction, is perhaps the chief, or at least the most striking of the 
characteristics of St. Croix. Good roads are not very common in 
the West Indian Islands. Indeed, as a general rule, the roads are 
very bad ; and it is therefore with the more pleasure and surprise 
that the unprepared visitor enjoys the luxury of travelling over the 
smooth avenue-like roads of this verdant island : particularly as, in 
so doing, he will find himself in many of his drives overshaded and 
protected, at least in a measure, from the glowing heat of the sun, 
by the tall branching palms, growing sometimes in single and oft- 
times in double rows, on either side of the smoothly gravelled way ; 
and which seem, as you look forward to them in a straight, vista-like 
view, like the pillars supporting the approach to some gigantic 
cathedral. Such rides, particularly when along the sea-coast, and 
where the soft, balmy, tropical sea-breeze can be felt blowing, or 
rather breathing, round the frame, are associated with a feeling of 
luxurious pleasure which must be seen and felt to be appreciated. 
And, during my too brief stay in this garden-like island, I enjoyed, 

through the kindness of my friends, Messrs. L ; K , N , 

&c., many opportunities for such enjoyment. 

Although a Danish settlement, and the chief possession of Den- 



FREDERICKSTADT. 75 

mark in the West Indies, yet St. Croix has a great number of Eng- 
lish, and also some German residents, and a considerable part of the 
island belongs to natives of my own country — of Scotland — whom 
the enlightened policy of Denmark has induced to settle here. The 
island is presided over by a Governor-general, assisted by a Council ; 
and I had the pleasure of an introduction to the present Governor- 
general, his Excellency General Hansen, and of receiving much 
kindness and information from him, and other official gentlemen un- 
der him in the island. The chief town or capital is Christianstadt. 
It is so named in honour of Christian lY., King of Denmark, and 
it is situated on the north coast, about the lower extremity of the 
island, called Bas-end. It is a substantial, regularly-built town, of 
about ten thousand inhabitants, containing a large Government 
house, several excellent churches, and possessing an excellent har- 
bour which is protected by a fortress — the only objection to the har- 
bour being that it is a port of difficult departure, when the wind is 
in particular directions. Such is Christianstadt, St. Croix now. 
The general statement of the residents in the island was, that it had 
fallen off in population and importance since the late emancipation by 
Denmark of the slaves in her colonial possessions. 

At the other extremity of the island (named West End) stands 
the town of Frederickstadt, built more in the style of modern sea- 
coast towns with us — covering fully more ground, and scarcely, if in 
any respect, inferior to its companion town of Christianstadt; al- 
though the latter enjoys the advantage of being the seat of the 
colonial government. 

In the British islands of Barbadoes, Antigua, St. Christopher's, 
Montserrat, &c., of late years a blight has attacked the cocoa-nut 
trees, and has destroyed, or is destroying, nearly the whole of them ; 
to the injury, not only of the trees themselves, but of Mr. H. N. 
Coleridge's fine poetical description of them, wherein they are 
represented as — 

" Palms which never die, but stand 
Immortal sea-marks on the strand." 

The first part to suffer and decay is the umbrella-like canopy of 
leaves; and this graceful finish to the tapering stem being away, the 
stalk is not only deprived of beauty, but becomes an object of de- 
formity. This has been the cause of considerable pecuniary loss to 
the proprietors in some of these islands ; and it has also been pro- 
ductive of considerable loss of beauty to many of the scenes the 
islands exhibit. For myself, I confess I had but little idea of the 

" Palm tree waving high," 
until I saw it in its native region, and relieved against the deep blue 



76 SANTA CRUZ. 

of the tropic sky.* My impression, when in Antigua, was, that the 
few trees that had survived the effects of the blight were beginning 
to recover therefrom, and were, in some cases, putting forth new 
leaves. But at the same time I could not fail to acquiesce in the 
opinion expressed by an experienced friend, Mr. Martin of High- 
point, &c., Antigua, that the true course was to supply the deficien- 
cies produced by the blight by planting new trees. It was, however, 
to be regretted, that no effort to do this was made in any place or 
plantation that came under my observation in the English islands ; 
and I was therefore the more ready to notice the fact, that not only 
the taller generation of palm-trees now to be seen in Santa Cruz 
(the number of which was certainly not short of forty or fifty thou- 
sand) were in full health and vigour, but that numerous young trees 
had been planted to supply the place of the older denizens, when 
these latter had met the fate which awaits the trunks of trees as well 
as the trunks of men. How this desirable end — the obtaining a 
succession of cocoa-nut trees — is attained, I could not authentically 
ascertain, further than being informed that the Danish Government 
had made it for a long time imperative, that certain quantities of 
such trees, for shade and refreshment, should be planted and kept up 
along all the roads throughout the island. 

Although no part of Santa Cruz rises to a great elevation, (Pros- 
perity Hill being the highest land in the island, and that being 
only about eleven hundred feet above the level of the sea,) yet 
there are many scenes of exceedingly picturesque beauty to be 
found in the island, particularly in the northern portions of it, 
which amply merit a visit, and well repay it. But, at the same time, 
it is the verdant, fertile character of the island as a whole, and the 
superiority and comfort of the planters' houses and their concomi- 
tants, that form the characteristics of this island. Such or such- 
like properties as those called respectively Canevalley, Paradise, 
Adventure, Fountain, and Castle estates, and many others that 
might be named, are seldom to be seen in any other of the West 
Indian Islands, and their condition bespeaks a high degree either 
of past or present prosperity on the part of the proprietors. That 
the past prosperity of Santa Cruz has been very great, is well 
known to all acquainted with this lovely island. Whether such 
prosperity is to attend the colony for the future, is a question which 
makes the recent and all-important change in the condition of the 
negro population — a change from slavery to freedom — one of much 
interest and importance. Denmark had preceded England in her 

* I am not ignorant of the fact, that the cocoa-nut tree (the cocos of botany) is 
supposed to be indigenous to the East Indies, and thence brought to America and 
the West Indian Islands. But it has now been so long domiciled in the islands of 
the West Indian Archipelago, that I think it may fairly be considered as entitled 
to the name and privileges of a native. 



SANTA CRUZ. 77 

abolition of the slave trade; but she allowed the "Island Queen" 
to take the precedence of her in the abolition of slavery itself 
within her own territorial dominions — and that by no less than 
sixteen years. She has^ however, now followed the noble example. 
By the very brief statute/ a copy and a translation of which will 
be found in Appendix A, which is dated 3d July 1848, all the 
" unfree/' or slaves, in the Danish West Indian Islands, were from 
that date emancipated from their previous state of serfdom. It 
was the knowledge of this fact that first induced in me the desire 
to visit the Danish islands of St. Thomas and Santa Cruz, as I was 
desirous of seeing a population on whom so important a change 
had so very recently passed, and of judging on the spot for myself 
of the effects likely to accrue from the transition, and from the 
manner in which it had been brought about. I say the manner in 
which it had been accomplished ; for while, in the absence of blood- 
shed attending the insurrection of the slaves which took place in 
Santa Cruz, in July 1848, there is much to be thankful for, it is 
certainly to be regretted that the Danish slaves received as the 
fruits of insurrection, and not as a free and generous boon from 
the Home Grovernment, the inestimable blessing of freedom. In- 
deed — and after hearing a detail of the whole attendant circum- 
stances, and witnessing the evidences of the truth which surround 
one on every side when visiting the island of Santa Cruz — it is im- 
possible to deny that, although the insurrection preceded and 
accelerated it, the giving of freedom to her slaves was an act of 
grace, a free gift, previously resolved upon on the part of the Danish 
government, and of its ofiicial representative, his Excellency Gene- 
ral Yon Sholton, then Grovernor-general of the Danish West India 
possessions. There can be no doubt but that the insurrection 
might have been put down by the strong arm of power, if the Go- 
vernment and Governor had so willed ; and I could not refuse my 
assent to the observation which fell from more than one of the 
leading men of the island, that it is almost to be regretted that it 
was not so put down, (the gift of freedom to follow, as a gift, im- 
mediately on its suppression,) even although the doing so might 
have been attended with some bloodshed. It is dangerous, always 
dangerous, to give a people — particularly an ignorant people — an 
idea of their power, even though the idea be a false one : and that 
the negro population of Santa Cruz have such an erroneous idea — 
that they ignorantly suppose that the Danish Government gave them 
their freedom simply because they could not keep it from them — is, 
I fear, the conclusion that must be drawn by every one who hears 
these poor people talk grandiloquently of " the war/' and the " scenes 
of the war ;" the "war" being the name they themselves give to 
that short and bloodless emeute which, commencing on or about Sa- 

6* 



78 SANTA CRUZ. 

turday the 1st of July 1848, by a ringing of bells and blowing of 
conch shells, (the negroes' favourite horn of warning, and a most 
effective, far-sounding one,) ended, as has been already stated, on 
Monday the 3d of July 1848, in the granting of entire emancipa- 
tion. Even at the outset of the disturbance, and although there 
were then but few military in the island, there was only one opinion 
as to the ability of those few, aided by very efficient militia and yeo- 
manry corps, kept up by the European population, to crush the so- 
called " rebellion/' had the Governor chosen to make use of such 
materials for that purpose. But it is more than suspected, nay, it is 
openly affirmed and generally believed, that his Excellency favoured 
the insurrection ; and it is by many even supposed that, in so doing, 
he was acting not only in accordance with his own personal views 
and feelings on the question of slavery, but in accordance with in- 
structions received from the Grovernment at Copenhagen. 

After the insurrection had broken out, and to guard against any 
extensive course of license and plunder being had recourse to, the 
Grovernor of the island applied for, and obtained the aid of several 
hundreds of Spanish soldiers, from the neighbouring fertile Spanish 
colony of Porto Rico. But these auxiliaries were not called into 
action in any way, so far as I could learn ; although there is not a 
doubt but that, so reinforced, the Danish troops and island militia 
might easily have kept or replaced matters in their old position. 
Apropos of the Danish troops, I was exceedingly pleased with the 
clean soldierly appearance of those I saw in this island, and also 
in the neighbouring island of St. Thomas ; and, during my resi- 
dence in either place, I did not see that which is unfortunately so 
often to be seen with us — viz. a drunken soldier. 

Although the Danish Grovernment have tl^us liberated the slaves 
in their colonial possessions, they have not yet, at least had not 
when I visited the island in April, 1849, given any compensation 
to the proprietors who held these slaves, and cultivated their 
estates by means of their labour. The claim for compensation had 
however been mooted, and confident expectations were held out by 
well-informed parties, that a claim so just would certainly be at- 
tended to. And now when Bepublican France has set her the 
example, in allowing compensation to the planters of Martinique 
and G-uadaloupe, and now that she no longer requires to waste her 
blood and treasure in the Sleswick-Holstein war, it is to be hoped 
that Denmark will show herself worthy to be placed alongside of 
England, by doing all she can to compensate her colonists for at 
all events a part of the loss they must have sustained by the mea- 
sure in question. It is only to be hoped that the compensation to 
be given will be something more than nominal; and that, while 
she follows France in the principle, she will not follow her example 



SANTA CKUZ. 79 

as to the amount to be given. For surely, at this hour of the 
day, and after the experience afforded by the British West India 
colonies, it is idle to say that the being deprived of the services of 
their slaves as slaves, and compelled to cultivate their lands with 
them only as freemen, in the face of competition by the Spanish 
colonies of Port Rico and Cuba, is not a source of loss to the 
planters. '' That free labour is as cheap to the planter as slave 
labour," was one of the fallacies which prevailed with many at the 
time the emancipation of the slaves in the British possessions (in 
itself a measure most desirable, but most unwisely precipitated) 
was carried by clamour in this country. Even then, there were 
found many who lifted up a warning voice, and told us to take 
care lest the effect of too sudden a change upon the condition of a 
race whom centuries had nearly brutalised, might not eventually 
prove injurious, and retard the civilisation of the very parties for 
whose benefit it was designed. Many able practical men said that, 
with Porto-Rico, Cuba, and Brazil to compete with, the planter 
who worked his estates by means of free labourers could not suc- 
cessfully carry on his operations, without reducing his workmen's 
wages to such a minimum as would leave them little for clothes, 
and nothing for education — unless in some way or other he got a 
very high price for the article he manufactured. Yet the argument 
ad captandum prevailed ; and it formed at least part of the causes 
which led to the emancipation of the whole of the slaves of Eng- 
land in 1834, that it was believed that slave labour was to the full 
as expensive as was labour by means of freemen, even in the then 
state of the West Indian Islands. But this fallacy is, I presume, 
pretty well exploded — at all events, I have not lately heard it ; 
and stubborn must be the disciple to it whom the effects of the 
Sugar Duties Bill of 1846 upon the prosperity of the British sugar- 
growing colonies, has not convinced of his mistake. That eman- 
cipation, by any government, of slaves previously held as property 
by its subjects, in virtue of laws which legalised or recognised the 
existence of what has been called ^' man's property in man," must 
be productive of loss to the holders of such property, is therefore 
a proposition of easy demonstration here, were it not that its dis- 
cussion would be foreign to the purposes of the work, or at least to 
the present portion of it. The subject has naturally presented itself 
in connexion with the recent slave insurrection in the island of 
Santa Cruz, and the emancipation by the Danish Government 
which followed upon it ; and these few remarks have been made 
upon it in passing, because it were undue concealment to hide the 
fact that, anxious as I was to see the matter in the most favourable 
light, I found that the greater number of the most intelligent of 
the planters and proprietors in Santa Cruz — the gentlemen who 



80^ SANTA CRUZ. 

had the largest stake in the matter, and who were hest acquainted 
with all the details — entertained the gloomiest apprehensions on 
the subject, fearing that the emancipation was an end of the 
island's prosperity, and that it had been gone about too suddenly, 
and with too little regard to the unprepared state of the society for f 
the reception of the boon, to render it likely that it would be pro- 
ductive of anything save a lessening of their comforts even to the 
negro population themselves, at least for a long time to come. 
Such certainly were the views I heard most frequently expressed 
at the tables of the planters, and even at the table of the Grovernor- 
general, during my visit to the island; and it is therefore only \ 
just that I should say so. There were, however, others who took 
a more cheering and encouraging view of the matter, and of the 
future prospects of this charming island ; and most sincerely do I 
hope that the latter may prove to be sound, and the former false 
prophets; and that, as regards the opinion of ^^anticipators of 
evil," it may be the case in this, as in other instances, that the 
^'fear'^ and not the wish has been father to the thought. 

Nor should I omit here to mention the fact, that both parties, 
the dismalists as well as the children of hope, unite in giving the 
present Grovernor-general (Hansen) credit, not only for the best 
intentions, but for the adoption of the wisest measures for the 
general prosperity of the island ; and particularly for the mea- 
sures he adopted to lessen the rudeness of the transition, and any 
injurious effects likely to result therefrom. In particular, Greneral 
Hansen, immediately after entering on his duties as Grovernor- 
general, passed an act " to regulate the relations between the pro- 
prietors of landed estates and the rural population of free labour- 
ers," which has been found to work very beneficially. This act is 
known in Santa Cruz as " The Labour Act ■/' and, as I have heard 
it much commended by many planters, even in the British colo- 
nies, as containing numerous provisions of great wisdom, which 
might be advantageously followed by ourselves, I have deemed it 
advisable to give (for those who may wish to peruse it) a transla- 
tion of it in the Appendix B. 

Leaving Santa Cruz and my kind friends there with very great 
regret, and attended by my countryman, Mr. Lang, to the boat, I 
sailed again at six A. m. in the West End packet for St. Thomas ; 
but, after a very rough handling on the part of Neptune, (who 
had hitherto proved so propitious and quiescent, that I had almost 
resolved to write a book to vindicate him from the aspersion of 
faithless, uncertain, and treacherous — 

" Varium et mutabile semper" — 

with which he is so often assailed by poets and others,) I reached 



PORTO RICO. 81 

the Bay of St. Thomas about four o'clock A. M. of next morning ; 
lying in my crib on board the packet till seven A. M. I landed 
again at St. Thomas, and employed the additional days of my stay 
in that island to a further exploration of it, and to the daily en- 
joyment of the superb view from the crest of the hill which over- 
hangs the town, until the arrival of the steamship Tay, in which 
I was to proceed, and did, after a few dayS; proceed onward in 
my journeyings. 



CHAPTER VI. 

— " Not content 
With every food of life to nourish man, 
Thou mak'st all nature beauty to his eye 
And music to his ear." — Milton. 
" The wild Maroons, impregnable and free, 
Among the mountain-holds of liberty, 
Sudden as lightning darted oh their foe — 
Seen like the flash, remembered like the blow." 

Leaving St. Thomaf late in the evening, a sail of some twelve 
hours brought us to the fortified town of Saint Juan'S; forming 
the capital of 

PORTO RICO, 

One of the Spanish West Indian possessions, situated between 
latitude 17° 55' and 18° 30' north, and longitude 65° 40' and 
67° 20' west ; about one hundred and twenty miles long and sixty 
broad, and containing a population of three hundred and sixty 
thousand inhabitants, of whom only about forty-two thousand are 
slaves, the rest of the population being composed of about one 
hundred and eighty-nine thousand whites, one hundred thousand 
mulattoes, and twenty-five thousand free blacks. Indeed, it is this 
circumstance—the smallness of its slave, and indeed of its negro 
population, as compared with the number of whites and coloured 
people — that may be said to form the chief characteristic of the 
colony of Porto Rico : the circumstance itself being accounted for 
by the fact that, for centuries, the island formed a penal settle- 
ment of the mother country. Not having done more than land at 
Porto Rico, I cannot add my personal testimony to that of the 
many travellers who have attested the fact, that Porto Rico, 
though not so romantic as some of the other larger islands, such 
as St. Domingo or Jamaica, (being much flatter,) is an island of 
great, nay, of excessive fertility — diversified with woods, valleys, 
and plains, watered by numerous rivers and springs, and abund- 



82 ST. DOMINGO. 

antly well stocked with cattle of every kind and description com- 
mon to these islands. Indeed, the value and extent of her exports 
in sugar, molasses, coffee, corn, and even rice, as well as the large 
revenue she yields to Spain, sufficiently prove the extreme fertility 
of this island ; and that the fields of Porto Rico, cultivated as they 
certainly are chiefly by white men, and under a tropical sun of as 
overpowering heat as is to be found in any other part of the West 
Indies — Gruiana alone excepted — are as well cultivated as any other 
of the tropical possessions. The capital, St. Juan de Porto Rico, 
with its fine bay and extensive fortifications, looks exceedingly well 
from the sea ; but, like most Spanish towns, St. Juan's looks best at 
a distance. On closer inspection, it wants the element of cleanli- 
ness, so valued in an Englishman's estimate of superiority or of 
comfort. 

Leaving St. Juan de Porto Rico after a short stay, and coasting 
along the shore of the island, the steamer next proceeds by a route 
of about sixty or seventy miles to the large island of 

ST. DOMINGO, HISPANIOLA, OR HAYTI, 

By nature the richest, as well as the largest, of all the islands in 
the West Indian Archipelago. The island of Hayti is four hundred 
miles in length by about seventy-five miles in breadth. It was first 
discovered by Columbus in 1492, and then named Hispaniola, under 
which name it was retained by Spain for one hundred and twenty 
years ; and, durmg her despotic rule for that period, its population 
was reduced from nearly a million, to only sixty thousand inhabitants. 
Thereafter it was jointly occupied by France and Spain till 1795, 
when the whole of it fell into the hands of the French, who retained 
it until 1804, when it passed from their hands, and was proclaimed 
an independent empire under its first emperor, Dessalines, a black 
chief, who " assumed the imperial purple," under the imposing title 
of Emperor of Hayti — that being the ancient if not the original 
name of the island. From 1804 downwards, the history of this 
unfortunate island has been little or nothing else than the history of 
rapine — one black rising up to contest the sovereignty with another, 
and filling the island with scenes of confusion and misery, which go 
far to prove the theory of those who maintain that the negro race is 
by natural incapacity unfitted for self-government. Indeed, there is 
scarcely a page of the history of St. Domingo, from the date of its 
occupation by Spain (which is now, by a retributive justice, doing ir 
her own person a kind of penance for her gross cruelty to the in- 
habitants of the West Indian Islands) that can be perused with 
pleasure by the friend of humanity ; unless, perchance, it be that 
page which tells of the heroic struggles for the liberty of himsel; 



ST. DOMINGO. 83 

and fellows, on tlie part of the African slave, and subsequent chief, 
Toussaint, who displayed a fortitude in adversity and a moderation 
in prosperity, which would have graced a person of infinitely higher 
opportunities and attainments ; and whose perfidious seizure and de- 
struction, (in the dungeon in which he was confined in France,) by 
the French, reflects very little credit on Ja grande nation. Lately, 
in this present year 1849, St. Domingo has been the theatre of a 
farce which promises to end in a renewal of some of the tragic 
scenes of which her poor inhabitants have been so often the victims. 
After having been for some time a republic, under the government 
of a President, and when it would almost seem as if the tendency of 
matters in Europe was — right or wrong, fault or no fault — to over- 
turn thrones, empires, kingdoms, and monarchies, and transform 
them all into " republics,'^ — as if a change of name was in itself a 
correction of abuses — the ambition of President Soulouque has in- 
duced him to try the adoption of a difi"erent course, and by a little 
manoeuvring he has managed to get himself elected to a throne 
under the title of ^^ Emperor," and by some such imposing name as 
that of Soulouque Faustin II., Emperor of Hayti. But, of course, 
the Haytian public have quite a right to please themselves ; and the 
whole matter would only be ridiculous, and as such might have 
almost escaped notice, were it not for the contrast it bears to the 
events lately transacted in Europe ; or were it not for the fear that 
M. Soulouque's transposition from president to emperor may just be 
the forerunner of a renewal of those contests, in this island of in- 
dependent blacks, of which there has for some years been so much, 
and so much to deplore. It is certainly to be regretted that an 
island so fertile, so romantic, and so capable of supporting a large 
population in comfort and luxury, should be under such governance, 
and have so many appearances of a retrogade course in civilization. 
But it is easier to deplore the fact than to point out a remedy ; for, 
of course, (in these times of enlightenment, when it becomes nations 
to consider the question of right, instead of confining themselves 
exclusively to considering questions of miglit, before engaging in 
any attempt,) improvement or alteration, to be effected by force of 
arms, is not to be thought of. 

The part of the island of St. Domingo at which, for the present, 
the English steamer touches, is Jacmel, a somewhat miserable 
village, lying in a very pretty bay on the south side of the island. 
Having there exchanged her mails, the steamer proceeds onwards in 
her course to ihe north, and next touches at the town of Kingston, 
in the island of 



84 JAMAICA. 



JAMAICA, 



Well known as the largest of the British islands in the West Indies, 
situated between 17° and 19° of north latitude, and 76° and 79° of 
west longitude. Jamaica is about one hundred and seventy miles 
long by about sixty broad. This noble island was discovered by 
Columbus, during the course of his second voyage of discovery, on 
the 3d of May, 1494. He named it Santiago — its present name, 
Jamaica, being simply a corruption of its previously existing Indian 
one of Xaymaca, or " the land of springs" — a name which at once 
points out one of the characteristics of this island, and emphatically 
illustrates the value the inhabitants of the tropics assign to a plenti- 
ful supply of spring-water. 

Jamaica has been so long and so well known in this country, and 
also in America, and it is now, and has for many years been, so often 
visited, and so frequently described, that it were out of place were 
I to do more than glance at its history, and describe, in a general 
way, the scenes I visited when in it, and the impressions and effects 
the produced upon my mind. 

The early history of Santiago or Jamaica, from the date of its 
discovery by Columbus in 1494, and during its occupation by the 
Spaniards, until the year 1655, when it was taken possession of by 
British forces during the Protectorate and iron rule of Oliver 
Cromwell, that hardest to be understood of all the rulers of Eng- 
land, is well known ; and it is as well known that it consists 
almost entirely of a series of narratives of cruelty and oppression, 
perpetrated on the persons of the unfortunate aborigines, which 
cast a deep shade over the memory of the great discoverer of the 
New World, and make one read, with something like a feeling of 
satisfaction, the details of civil strife and foreign aggression which 
have ravaged the fertile fields of Spain in later years, and which 
seem almost as if they were acts of retributive justice, for the im- 
pious deceptions and atrocious cruelties perpetrated by the Spaniards 
on the gentle aborigines of the island of Jamaica. Seven hundred 
thousand Indians disappeared from the face of this single island, 
within the first twelve or thirteen years from the date of its first 
discovery ! Caves are still to be found (or at least found at the 
time of the publication of Edwards' book) in the mountains, in 
which the ground is covered over with the bones of the unfortunate 
Indians, whom the rapacity of the so-called Christians had driven 
into such retreats, and who preferred the dreadful fate of perishing 
with hunger, to that of expiring by a lingering death under the 
heavy servitude and murderous cruelties of the white men. The 
simple fact that an island, — described by the discoverers them- 



JAMAICA. 85 

selves as being, at the date of discovery, filled to overflowing with 
a simple inoffensive people, in the possession i^of all the necessa- 
ries of life, and living in so much greater luxury than the natives 
of some of the other islands, that, when Columbus visited them, 
his ship was surrounded by "canoes of large size, handsomely 
painted both at the bow and stern, each of them made from the 
trunk of a single tree,^^* — was, by a few years of Spanish domina- 
tion, not only enslaved, but almost entirely depopulated, speaks 
volumes. Facts such as these require no comment : they speak for 
themselves, and fully prepare the mind for doing more than con- 
curring in the gentle reprobation of the eloquent Irving, when he 
says, with reference to Columbus having sent some hundreds of the 
aborigines to Spain, to swell his triumph, and with the suggestion 
that they might be sold as slaves — " It is painful to find the bril- 
liant renown of Columbus sullied by so foul a stain, and the glory 
of his enterprise degraded by such flagrant violations of humanity/' 

I have already said that the latter pages of Spanish history, as 
regards the transactions on her own soil, reveal something like the 
actings of a principle of retributive justice. The same observation 
may be made regarding the evanescent character of her colonial 
greatness. The discoverer and conqueror of South America, and 
the possessor of sundry islands to the north, and of nearly all that 
was valuable in the West Indian Archipelago, — the immense colo- 
nial empire of Spain has been gradually diminished into a mere 
fragment of its former self. 

As above stated, Jamaica passed out of the hands of Spain into 
the hands of G-reat Britain, during the Protectorate of Cromwell, 
in 1655, and, with the exception of a few Spanish names, and, in 
particular, of the euphonious name of the former capital, (now the 
second town in the island, and still the residence of the British 
governor,) the town of Saint lago de la Yega, (Spanish Town,) 
there is nothing to remind the visitor that the island was ever one 
of Spain^s transatlantic possessions. 

The very first sight of Jamaica is beautiful and inspiriting. The 
luxuriance of the tropical vegetation, combined with the grandeur 
of the mountain ranges of the Port Eoyal and Blue Mountains, 
(which are fully eight thousand feet at their highest elevation,) 
constitute and create views of rich and rare beauty. The coast is 
indented with numerous very beautiful, and, I believe, very safe 
bays ; and although the land near the coast is flat and level, it soon 
begins to rise as you journey inwards, until it ascends to the height 
of the mountains already referred to, which traverse the island from 
east to west almost for its entire length. The mountains of Port 

* I find it stated, on the authority of Mr. Irving, that one of these canoes, mea- 
sured by Columbus himself, was of the almost incredible length of ninety-six feet. 



86 JAMAICA. 

Royal and the Blue Mountains, again, are intersected in every 
direction by deep fissures, glens, and ^^ gullies," formed by the 
convulsions of nature during some one or other of the many earth- 
quakes from which Jamaica has suffered, or by the washings of the 
impetuous torrents (which sweep down the mountain sides, carry- 
ing everything before them) during the frequent hurricanes by 
which the island has been devastated. And these glens, fissures, 
and ravines, again, being clothed to their bottom, and crowned to 
their crests, by a great variety of tropical trees, many of them of 
gigantic size, and most of them of exceeding beauty, the result is, 
that at almost every turn the traveller is delighted with scenes of 
the rarest formation as well as of the greatest beauty and gran- 
deur. It has been said by some one, that Jamaica, as well as Mar- 
tinique, has scenes " surpassing fable ;'' and if by this it is meant 
that it were difficult, even for the imagination of greatest power, 
to preconceive the extraordinary fantastic shapes and contortions 
of mountain and of glen, into which nature occasionally throws 
herself in this romantic island, nothing can be more just. To me 
it appeared (and the image, though a plain one, is the only one I 
can at present remember which gives my ideas with any sort of 
accuracy) as if the whole island had at one time been in a boiling 
state, then suddenly cooled down, when at its point of highest 
ebullition, and after that split in every possible direction, and the 
fissures, so formed, clothed with noblest flowers and foliage to their 
highest heights and innermost recesses. 

It is among the Port Royal Mountains that the coffee planta- 
tions of Jamaica are chiefly to be seen ; and it was on a visit to 
one of these that I first saw the remarkable scenery of which I 
have attempted the above very general description. An account of 
the visit will aid in giving the reader a more determinate idea of 
the scenery in question. 

The ascent from Kingston up to a place called the " Botanic 
G-arden," for a distance of nine miles, is by a tolerably good car- 
riage road, and presents no features requiring special mention, 
although for some time ere you reach Botanic G-arden, the scenery 
assumes a very Alpine character, and the mountains of Port Royal, 
which occupy the foreground of the picture, are very sublime. 
From Botanic Garden, to what I may call, in railway phraseology, 
the ^^ summit level,'^ is by a bridle-path, up a very precipitous 
winding ascent, inaccessible to carriages, and only to be travelled 
on horses or mules. From various points of elevation, different 
superb mountain-views present themselves ; and from the moun- 
tain-top the scene which opens upon you is certainly one of the 
most magnificent that can well be conceived. It stretches away in 
every direction, behind and before, on either side of the Blue 



JAMAICA. g7 

Mountain range, and seaward as far as the eye can reach. Behind 
is the vale or glen whence you have toiled to an elevation of some 
four thousand feet, with the town and valley of Kingston beyond 
it, and the glorious sea stretching away in the far distance, as — 

" Without a mark, •without a bound, ^ 
It runneth the earth's wide regions round." 

In front of you is a narrow glen, at the bottom of which a stream, 
called, I believe, the Yallows river, may be traced like a silver 
thread pursuing its tortuous course through the rock-obstructed, 
thickly-wooded vale. Beyond this glen, and overlooking it, the 
eye rests on another ridge of the same range of hills, on which 
ridge the mansion-house of Pleasant Hill estate stands conspi- 
cuous, perched, as it were, in mid air, and seemingly (for from 
the place the observer is presumed to stand, the road is not 
visible) only to be reached by the aid of a pair of wings. While 
still onwards, and beyond all that I have attempted to describe, is 
seen the gigantic summit of John Crow Hill, towering over every- 
thing in that particular direction. Again, when the attention of 
the observer is turned to either side, he is even still more entranced 
with the occasional views he will get, at different parts of the road, 
of the cloud-capped peak of the Blue Mountain range on the one 
side of him, or of the almost equally magnificent summit called 
St. Catherine's Peak on the other. 

The trees that the European visitor will meet with in such a 
journey as this, will greatly interest him. In describing a ride in 
another part of the island, I shall have occasion to notice the ex- 
treme size and graceful beauty of the bamboos ; but, in the course 
of my excursions among the mountain scenery of Jamaica, I did 
not observe any tree that appeared to me more remarkable than 
the silk cotton-tree, (Bombax,) of which I had already seen some 
extraordinary specimens in Antigua, and particularly in the ascent 
to Fig-Tree hill in that island. Many of these trees are of great 
size, being not less than fifteen feet in diameter; and, as they grow 
in the most fantastic shapes and directions, without any regard to 
symmetry or regularity, throwing their larger branches out at 
right angles with the trunk, and the smaller branches almost at 
right angles with their larger ones, the whole being nearly bare of 
leaves and covered over with a parasitic plant, (resembling the 
pine-apple plant somewhat in shape,) the result is an appearance 
which entitles it to be considered as a monster amongst forest 
trees. In its massive sturdy proportions, and naked appearance, 
the silk cotton-tree called up the poet's description so often applied 
to the British oak, as it stands, or withstands, the blasts of winter 
in our northern clime :^- 



88 JAMAICA. 

" Pondere fixa suo est, nudosque per aera ramos 
Attolens, trunco non frondibus efficit lambram." 

The name of '^ silk cotton-tree " is derived from its producing a pod 
filled with a silky white substance, whick is of a very short fibre ; 
and of whick I could not ascertain that any use was made in any of 
the islands. Next to this remarkable production of nature, tke 
tamarind-tree, the largest specimens of wkick, however, are to be 
found in the valleys, attracted most of my attention. Indeed, the 
West Indian tamarind-tree appeared to my eye one of tke most beau- 
tiful trees I kad ever seen. It does not grow to a great keigkt, being 
seldom seen above forty feet kigh ; but it sends ofi" numerous branckes 
from tke trunk to a considerable distance, and witk great regularity 
— kas a small leaf of a ligktisk green colour — kas a very pretty 
wkite or yellowisk flower, witk red veins, wkick gradually forms into 
tke pod, (containing tke tamarind enveloped in a pulpy matter); and 
wketker in leaf, flower, or fruit, tke West Indian tamarind-tree is one 
of tke most graceful trees to be seen in any part of tke world. Tke 
beautiful cedar-tree, red and wkite, is also to be seen in great abun- 
dance in Jamaica ; and in many places in tke interior may be like- 
wise found tke makogany, tke ebony, tke boxwood, tke rosewood, 
and many otker trees, valuable on account of tkeir uses or of tkeir 
timber. 

Wken travelling among tke mountains of Jamaica, and particularly 
wken spending. the afternoon and evening at the mansion-house 
attached to a cofiee plantation among the Port Koyal mountains, 
(wkere, seemingly, far away from tke keat and bustle of tke plains 
and tke busier kaunts of man, and percked more tkan kalf way up 
tke mountain-side, at an elevation of nearly five tkousand feet above 
tke level of tke ocean, I enjoyed tke unwonted luxury of a fireplace 
witk a fire in it, and tke additional luxuries of cold spring water, 
iiniced, and a sleep under a blanket) I was surprised to find myself, 
wken walking in tke evening, surrounded by a kost of fire-flies. I 
had of course seen tkese insects in tke plains, but I kad somewkere 
read tkat tkey were not to be found in tke mountain ranges ; and I 
was certainly not prepared to find tkem more numerous at tke ele- 
vation described tkan I kad ever before known tkem. In tke lan- 
guage of tke poet — 

" Every hedge and copse was bright 
With the quick fire-fly's playful light; 
Like thousands of the sparkling gems 
Which blaze in Eastern diadems." 

It is said tkat tkese insects are occasionally enclosed in glass cases, 
and used as candles ; and altkougk I skould tkink a million of tkem 
but a poor substitute for a gas, or even a candle lamp, I do not doubt 
tke assertion. Nor do I doubt tke trutk of tke statement made by 



JAMAICA. 89 

Mr. .Turnbull, in his book on the island of Cuba, that ^^the late 
eccentric Mr. Joseph of Trinidad, (Cuba,) assured him that he had 
written several volumes by this sort of light." But whatever they 
may be as aids in literary composition, the fire-fly is a very beautiful 
object " in the starry light of a summer's night," on the hill-sides 
of Jamaica, flitting about from flower to flower, and from shrub to 
shrub, with their lamps burning with a clear pale flame. 

It was in this part of the island of Jamaica that I first saw a 
coffee plantation. Indeed, it was to visit and inspect such planta- 
tions that I directed my steps to the Port Royal mountains. It is 
well known that the coffee plant has, for a long time, been exten- 
sively cultivated in this island. Indeed, the whole of the moun- 
tainous districts of Jamaica — and this includes a very great extent 
of land — is admirably adapted for this culture ; and, particularly 
since the declaration of Hay tian independence, coffee has been grown 
in Jamaica to a very large extent. It is, however, too much to be 
feared, that the days of its profitable culture in Jamaica are, for the 
-present at least, at an end. On all hands was I assured, that nothing 
could now be made by growing coffee in the Island of Springs ; that 
few or no new plantations had been formed of late years, and that 
the old ones were gradually going out of cultivation. Were it for 
nothing else than the beauty of the culture, this is deeply to be 
regretted. Anything in the way of cultivation more beautiful, or 
more fragrant, than a coffee plantation, I had not conceived ; and oft 
did I say to myself, that if ever I became, from health or other- 
wise, a cultivator of the soil within the tropics, I would cultivate the 
coffee plant, even though I did so irrespective altogether of the profit 
that might be derived from so doing. Much has been written, and 
not without justice, of the rich fragrance of an orange grove ) and at 
home we ofttimes hear of the sweet odours of a bean-field. I too 
have often enjoyed, in the Carse of Stirling and elsewhere in Scot- 
land, the balmy breezes as they swept over the latter, particularly 
when the sun had burst out, with unusual strength, after a shower 
of rain. I have likewise, in Martinique, Santa Cruz, Jamaica, and 
Cuba, inhaled the gales wafted from the orangeries ; but not for a 
moment would I compare either with the exquisite aromatic odours 
from a coffee plantation in full blow, when the hill-side-^quite 
covered over with the regular rows of the tree-like shrub, with their 
millions of jessamine-like flowers — showers down upon you, as you 
ride up between the plants, a perfume of the most delicately deli- 
cious description. ■'Tis worth*going to the West Indies to see the 
sight and inhale the perfume. 

The coffee plant is not a native of the West Indies, and the his- 
tory of its introduction into these islands is worth recording. The 
tree or plant was first brought by the Dutch from Mocha into Ba- 

8* 



00 JAMAICA. 

tavia, and the bean or fruit was first sold in Europe at the fair of 
St. Grermains in 1672. Thereafter, it was introduced into France 
by Louis XIV. as an exotic ; and this introduction of the tree into 
Europe led to its being transferred in 1720 into the French island 
of Martinique. From Martinique the French transplanted some 
of the shrubs to St. Domingo, and thence the coffee plant spread 
to Jamaica and the other West Indian Islands. It grows best on 
the hill-sides, at a considerable elevation ; and when grown in the 
plains (as in Porto llico, Demerara, &c.,) it requires to have such 
loftier trees and shrubs as the orange or the plantain, &c., planted 
between the rows of coffee-trees or bushes, to shelter them from the 
ardour of the meridian sun. On the mountain-side the coffee plant 
is longer of coming to maturity, by reason of the greater coolness ; 
and for the same reason it continues to bear fruit for a longer term 
of years. In the plains it sooner attains maturity, and is sooner 
exhausted by bearing ; and this fact explains and accounts for the 
contrariety of statements regarding the date at which the coffee 
plant arrives at maturity, or the length of its fruit-bearing season. 
Both vary according to the climate in which the plant is grown ; 
or, what is the same thing, according to the elevation at which it 
is grown. And thus the inquirer may be on one occasion truth- 
fully told that the coffee plant arrives at perfection in four or five 
years, and ceases to bear at forty or fifty years of age ; and on 
another, with equal truth, that it takes eight or ten years to arrive 
at maturity, but lasts till seventy or eighty years of age. 

In a "caffetal" or coffee plantation, the plants (which are grown 
from suckers or slips) are planted in regular rows — each plant being 
allowed a space of from six to ten feet square to develop itself. If 
left to itself the plant or bush would grow to a height of seven or 
eight feet, or occasionally higher, but it is kept down by pruning, 
to about four feet high. The leaves are of the dark-green hue, and 
also of the form of the leaves of the common laurel, but smaller; 
and the flowers are white, in every respect like those of the 
jessamine, save only that those of the coffee plant are somewhat 
larger. The berries are like small cherries, and^ like cherries, 
they progress in ripeness, from green to black or purple. The 
berries are also sweet and pulpy, and each of them contains two 
seeds — which seeds constitute what is with us called coffee beans. 
The processes of preparing coffee for the market are, pruning, pick- 
ing, pulping, drying, and separating, which may be very shortly 
described as follows : — Pruning consists in tending the plants, and 
seeing that they do not waste their strength in growing wood in- 
stead of fruit. Picking is pulling the berries, carefully selecting 
only those that are ripe, and leaving the immature to be ripened 
by the sun ; and it is in this part of the process that the want of 



JAMAICA. 91 

labourers in some of our British West Indian colonies (or rather 
the difficulty of getting the labourers to work) is chiefly felt. On 
the coffee plant the blossom, the unripe, and ripe fruit may occa- 
sionally be seen all at once ; and hence it is that, in ^^ picking '' 
properly, the plant requires to be visited frequently, for the pur- 
pose, in the course of a season. In the Spanish island of Porto 
liico, where labour is plentiful, and where there are means of com- 
pelling it, this is easily accomplished. The " pickers " visit the 
plant frequently ; and the result is shown in the equal condition 
of the berries removed on each occasion. But in Jamaica, where 
labour is scarce, and where there are no means of inducing the la- 
bourers to work even at this light species of task, save by the 
temptation of excessive wages, (and even that does not always suc- 
ceed,) the proprietor or manager of the cafFetal is glad to get his 
coffee plants picked when and in what manner he can procure 
labourers to do it. The consequences may be anticipated. Pulp- 
ing is performed by a '^ pulping mill,^^ an engine of very ingenious 
construction, which deprives the seeds of the pulp by which they 
are surrounded, and also of the outer skin of the berry. The two 
seeds found in each berry are thus separated, and each of them is 
then found to be covered with a thin paper-like skin, which is 
taken off by another mill, adapted for the purpose. To be dried, 
the seeds are exposed to the sun on a " barbacue " or flat place, 
on the hill-top or hill-side, made with lime, plaster of Paris, and 
some other materials, (like a very dry malting floor) where the 
coffee-seeds are allowed to remain some time, (great care being 
taken to preserve them from wet) and after this the coffee-beans 
are removed from the barbecue, and the broken and inferior seeds 
separated from the rest — which rest are then ready to be put into 
bags, and conveyed by donkeys, mules, and horses across the moun- 
tains of Port Boyal to the town of Kingston, for sale or for ship- 
ment. 

Such is a very general description of coffee-growing, picking, 
and preparing, as practised in the island of Jamaica. In some 
plantations the smaller seeds, and also the bruised or broken ones, 
are separated from the better kind by a mill for the purpose ; but 
more generally this is done by hand — this part of the process, as 
is also the picking, being conducted by women and children. In 
some coffee plantations there are more numerous appliances for ac- 
complishing the different processes speedily and effectually than 
are to be found in others. But, in general, they are all as above 
described ; and, as before stated, it is a very pretty cultivation, 
and a very cleanly process of preparation. Sorry, therefore, was I 
to learn on the spot that the competition of slave-grown coffee in 
the home market of Great Britain was likely to prove so great as 



92 JAMAICA. 

to drive the Jamaica coffee-planters out of the trade. This, how- 
ever, is but one of the many injurious effects which have arisen 
from the Ministry of the day having included the West Indian 
colonies within the application of their category of free trade, (as 
regards their exports,) unmindful or regardless of the fact that, by 
previous legislation, the inhabitants of these colonies had been de- 
prived of the power to cultivate their estates by means of slaves — 
their competitors in the populous and rich colonial possessions of 
Spain and Portugal having it still in their power so to do; forget- 
ful, in short, of the circumstances which render the case of the 
British West Indian planter an exceptional one. 

Returning to Kingston from a visit to the coffee plantations among 
the Port Royal mountains, the visitor may vary the scene by taking 
a somewhat different route than that by which he went. I did so, and 
returned by a road which led me across the summit at a different 
point, and by a gorge or cleft, which is so totally unseen until the 
traveller is just in it, that you are actually rounding the bluff corner 
or point ere you can persuade yourself that there can be a means of 
exit in that direction. The road, or bridle-path in question, pursues 
its way down the mountains, passing the barracks at Newcastle, 
which lie a little at the right. This garrison at Newcastle stands 
very beautifully among the mountain scenery, at an elevation, little, 
if anything, short of three thousand feet. 

To describe the scenery of this day's ride, were almost to repeat 
what has been already written of the ascent. Though different, it . 
was still the same — sufficiently varied to give renewed delight to the 
wanderer in search of the picturesque or grand, but not sufficiently 
different to enable one — or at least one not an adept at describing 
scenery — to record its peculiar characteristics, in such a way as to 
make the details interesting to the general reader. Indeed, the same 
remark may be made respecting the whole of the mountain scenery 
of Jamaica. It is unquestionably very grand — ofttimes surprisingly 
and sublimely so ; and many of its scenes of enchantment are en- 
shrined among my most valued recollections of the kind : but they 
are so marked by the same general features, that they may be often 
described in nearly the same general way. .At all events, and un- 
less the writer had the descriptive talent of a Scott or of a Dickens, 
it were not easy to give such variety to the written portraiture as to 
render it interesting to a reader. Very different, however, is it in 
the inspection. Then there is the perception of an unceasing variety, 
which prevents the possibility of a feeling of sameness. 

Something has already been written of the exceeding beauty, or 
rather grace, of the bamboo-tree. It was in a visit to a scene in the 
island of Jamaica, of a different description from the mountain scenes 



JAMAICA. 93 

above delineated, that my attention was most directed to the peculiar 
elegance of this tree, with 

" Its feathery tufts, like plumage rare ; 
Its stem so high, so strange, so fair." 

And the view I refer to was one which the traveller in the Island of 
Springs should on no account leave unvisited. It rejoices in the 
somewhat strange cognomen of the " Bog Walk/^ but might much 
more fittingly be denominated the Mountain Grlen or the Dark Val- 
ley. I visited it when en route to visit one of the most, if not the 
most, beautiful and fertile sugar-plantations in the island of Jamaica, 
(in compliance with the invitation of its enthusiastic, enterprising, 
and talented owner, who had been my fellow-voyager from England 
to Barbadoes, and who, if ever these lines meet his eye, will, I trust, 
remember the meeting with the same pleasure that I do;) and an 
account of the whole ride will, I hope, not prove unacceptable to the 
reader who is desirous of knowing something of a European's feel- 
ings and experiences in the island of Jamaica. 

As far as Spanish Town — or (as I would prefer calling it, for the 
sake of euphony, by its Spanish name) as far as St. lago de la Yega 
— the route is by railway, a distance of thirteen miles, performed in 
about half an hour, travelled by locomotives, passing through a low, 
flat country, now almost completely grown over with bush, (a species 
of prickly acacia,) but which, I was assured, was some years ago 
clear, a large part of it being excellent pasture land. 

Spanish Town, though the seat of the government and the capital, 
does not afford many objects of interest. The Grovernment-house is 
a spacious building, and the square in which it stands is neat, and 
neatly planted. In this square there is a marble statue, executed by 
Bacon, erected to the memory of Lord Rodney, in acknowledgment 
of the services rendered by him to his country on the occasion of the 
signal victory obtained by him and Hood in the West Indies, on the 
12th April 1782, over the combined fleets of France and Spain, 
when they threatened an attack upon Jamaica. This victory was ob- 
tained at a time when Great Britain was contending with her re- 
volted American colonies — which opportunity had been seized by 
France, assisted by Spain, for inflicting a blow against her island 
rival. I confess that, although the efforts of Jonathan to assert and 
to maintain his independence, and even his success in doing so, never 
moved my bile — although, indeed, I regard such struggles and such 
success, in a strife for liberty, as part of the Anglo-Saxon character 
— as something that Jonathan has inherited from his father, John 
Bull — I cannot forgive France the part she has so often played in 
the unnatural wars between Britain and the States. That without 
the aid of France, America could not have succeeded — at least, could 



94 JAMAICA. 

not have so soon succeeded — in vindicating her independence, will 
be acknowledged by every candid student of American history, on 
whichever side of the Atlantic he has been born or ^' raised/' But, 
however desirable it was, or might be, that America should assert 
her independence, there was much that was unworthy in the motives 
which led France to throw her weight into the scale ; and I cannot 
help regarding the growth of democratic and republican principles in 
France, and the destruction of her monarchy and monarchical insti- 
tutions, with the uncertain tenure on which all things seem at pre- 
sent held in that country, as a kind of retributive justice towards her 
and her rulers for their ungenerous conduct towards England on the 
occasion of the wars with the revolted provinces in North America. 
Be this, however, as it may, it was when England was so engaged, 
single-handed, and against many enemies, that the naval might of 
France and Spain was humbled by the victory of Kodney and Hood, 
thus commemorated in the little square of the little town which re- 
joices in the euphonious Spanish name of St. lago de la Yega. 

The road from Spanish Town to the village of Ewarton passes 
through the scenery I have already referred to as known by the ex- 
traordinary cognomen of the " Bog Walk/' As far as Ewarton the 
road is good. A few miles after leaving Spanish Town, you enter 
upon the glen, and, for a distance of about four or five miles, the 
eye is delighted by a succession of romantic scenes of singular for- 
mation and exceedingly picturesque beauty. The translucent stream, 
alongside of which the road -winds, has forced for itself a passage 
through the opposing barrier of rock, which is occasionally fully 
four hundred feet high, as it rises overhead on either side. The lux- 
uriant vegetation of the tropics has clothed the sides of this ravine 
closely, and to the very summits, with a host of flowering shrubs, 
and even with gigantic forest-trees, which throw their dark shadows 
down upon the pathway ; while, overhead, are seen glimpses of the 
deep blue of the tropic sky — of a dark blue, and of a liquid clear- 
ness altogether unknown and undreamt of in our less genial but 
more bracing climate of the north. The whole forms one of the 
most pleasing scenes it has ever been my good fortune to witness* 
Further on, in the same ride, are to be seen the gigantic clusters of 
the bamboo, already mentioned, whose feathery foliage, when gently 
stirred by the breeze, moves and bends with all the grace of the 
plumes of the ostrich, and is indeed "beautiful exceedingly." These 
bamboo trees, as they may with propriety be called, are ofttimes 
seen of fully one hundred feet high, each stem being of six or eight, 
or even ten inches in diameter, and growing in tufts or clusters of 
fifty or sixty together, their nodding plumes hanging over your head 
and waving in the wind, as the traveller passes on under their grate- 
ful shade. 



JAMAICA. 95 

Beyond that part of the journey entitled the Bog Walk, the 
scenery of the ride from St. lago de la Vega to the village of Ewar- 
ton is pleasing and often fine; and after leaving Ewarton the 
scenery-lover progresses into a mountainous district of much gran- 
deur, revealing at almost every turn mountain glades where sun- 
shine and shade repose almost side by side — forming precipices and 
abysses whose depth the eye is prevented from penetrating, by the 
deep, close fringe of foliage that covers their sides, and gigantic 
mountain-peaks rearing their magnificent, cloud-wreathed heads at 
almost every opening in the forest. 

I have, since my return from the voyage of which these volumes 
contain a brief record, observed a growing tendency in the public 
mind in this country to regard Jamaica as a place of sanitary resort, 
and as likely, if not to supersede, at least greatly to interfere with 
the island of Madeira in that respect : and certainly truth compels 
me to admit that there are few places to which an invalid from 
Europe could go with better hope of benefit, than to the salubrious 
island of Jamaica. The voyage which — particularly when adven- 
tured on at the proper season of the year — is ofttimes the most bene- 
ficial part of the change, is no longer than that to the more fre- 
quented island of wine-growing celebrity; and Jamaica being much 
larger than Madeira, there is greater variety to occupy the attention 
of the invalid, and to prevent the approach of that ennui which is 
apt to steal over the exhausted frame. In the plains and in the 
towns of the Island of Springs, particularly in Kingston, it is warm, 
no doubt — hot, and perhaps to most persons very unpleasantly so, 
being but seldom under 100° of Fahrenheit in the shade. But by 
going a little way into the country, and up into the mountains, the 
visitor may literally secure for himself or herself a climate almost of 
any temperature, from the merely temperate heat of a spring or a 
summer's morning, to the noonday heat already mentioned. Add 
to this that the change of scene (which is always, I should think, of 
much importance, when the object is to draw off the invalid's atten- 
tion from himself and his own feelings,) in going direct from Europe 
to Jamaica, is very great, much greater than it can be by limiting 
the voyage to the temperate zone. The skies, grains, shrubs, 
flowers, birds, fish, and above all the trees, are nearly all different 
and in different forms and combinations. So that the first novel, 
and no doubt often painful, impressions worn ofi^, there is abundance 
to attract and occupy the attention, to the exclusion of depressing or 
other thoughts of self, even during a very extended stay. For the 
British visitor Jamaica has this further advantage, that the language, 
the forms and the arrangements of domestic life, and the public or- 
dinances of religious worship, are all nearly the same as those of the 
mother country. I can, therefore, with great truth and satisfaction, 



96 JAMAICA. 

add my tumble testimony to tliat of others wlio have preceded me, 
as to the salubrity of Jamaica, and the inducements it holds out as 
a place of sanitary resort for the invalid — particularly of the invalid 
whose lungs are affected, or suspected of being so. But, at the same 
time, similar remarks may be made of some others of the British 
West India possessions. So far as my own personal feelings are 
concerned, I should prefer a temporary location in the smaller island 
of St. Kitt's, with the advantage such residence affords of an occa- 
sional two hours' sail to the romantic isle of Nevis. No doubt the 
island of St. Christopher's is not so large as is Jamaica ; nor are the 
mountains of the former so lofty as those of the latter. But, if 
these circumstances prevent the variety of climate, they render it' 
more equal; and I have often heard residents in the West Indies 
complain of injurious effects resulting from a sudden transition from 
the temperate region of the hill-top, or of the hill-side, to the torrid 
zone of the plain below. Again, the visitor will not find, in the 
island of saintly name, so great variety either of society or of scenery 
as in its larger sister island of spring celebrity. But St. Christo- 
pher's is surrounded by a number of islands, particularly by those 
of the British Leeward group, to most of which there is easy and 
frequent access; and, by a two hours' sail to Nevis, or by a sail of a 
few hours longer to Montserrat or Antigua, or a day's sail in the 
steamer to St. Thomas, the visitor who makes St. Kitt's his head- 
quarters may easily vary the scene almost ad infinitum. This, how- 
ever, is a mere comparison of physical advantages. If the invalid 
has friends and relations in either place, he or she will of course be 
influenced by that consideration; and I would be very far from 
making an attempt to dissuade from such a course, although it 
would be displaying base ingratitude, and doing gross injustice to 
West Indian hospitality, were I not here to add, that there is no 
part of the world where the person entirely a stranger can go, with 
more certainty of receiving kindness and considerate attention, than 
to the British colonial possessions in the West Indies. To the 
native-born subjects of Great Britain this tribute is due. But they 
will, I trust, forgive me when I add, that I feel almost as if it were 
doubly due to the colonial-born subjects of our noble country. 
There seemed to me to be something in the Creole blood that en- 
gendered a graceful courtesy and disinterestedness of conduct — some 
generous peculiarity of mind, derived from the fact that a tropical 
birthplace had dissolved something of the natural caution of the 
northern race to which they belonged, and warmed them into a more 
generous sympathy. The observation applies to my Creole friends 
of both sexes. As regards the ladies, I may be permitted to add — 
and I make the addition with heartfelt sincerity — that to a natural 
kindness (if I may so speak) of manner, there is added an ease, a 



JAMAICA. 97 

grace, and a beauty, wliicli at least proves that they have lost none 
of the charms of the race from which they have sprung, by their 
parents being transplanted into a warmer clime. I had heard some- 
thing of the beauty of the Creole ladies ere I visited the West In- 
dies. But I was not a week there ere I felt surprise that I had not 
heard much more. And, did not my feeling of what is due to pro- 
priety and the duties of private life prevent me from even partially 
lifting the veil which ought to preserve from publicity whatever the 
traveller may have seen, through his having been admitted into the 
circles of domestic life, I could name ladies, married as well as sin- 
gle, in Barbadoes, Antigua, St. Kitt's, Santa Cruz, and Jamaica, 
(particularly I confess in Antigua,) who, in personal charms, as well 
as accomplishments, would advantageously compare or contrast with 
any of the fairer part of creation it had ever been my own good for- 
tune to meet. To the fullness and dignity derived from their Nor- 
man blood or Anglo-Saxon origin, they add an easy grace and 
elegance of motion, probably derived in some way from the circum- 
stance of their birthplace being within the tropics. And, albeit 
their complexion is generally pale, this very circumstance supplies 
an additional interest; while the soft languor of their dark eyes, 
with their long eye-lashes, give many of these Creole ladies a very 
peculiar charm. Add to this, that it were difficult to find, in any 
part of the world, north or south, east or west, any ladies who better 
discharge their relative duties as daughters, wives, and mothers, 
than do our fellow-countrywomen in the British islands in the West 
Indian Archipelago. 

From Kingston the traveller may, if he pleases, have an opportu- 
nity of visiting Port Royal, where the chief of the Government works 
are situated. The sail is by excellent wherries, which perform the 
voyage with great regularity ', and the fare, (up or down,) which is 
fixed and determined by the Kingston authorities, is one shilling, 
which, for a distance of six or seven miles, is certainly moderate. 
This voyage is generally taken by the visitor to Kingston ; but it is 
not one I would advise the invalid to adventure on. In addition to 
the desire to see the Government works at Port Royal, I had this 
other inducement, that I anxiously wished to visit the spot where lie 
the remains of one of the best and earliest friends of my youth — the 
remains of the excellent and able Dr. Archibald Lang, M. D., for 
several years surgeon of the naval hospital at Port Royal ; of whom 
it is truly said on the beautiful tablet erected to his memory by the 
naval and military officers then on the West Indian station, in Port 
Royal church, that — 

" He was the good Samaritan, the sick man's 
Comforter, and the poor man's friend." 

By one of those contingencies which strike the mind from their 

9 



98 JAMAICA. 

infrequency, I had, without any pre-arrangement, visited Lang's 
grave on the anniversary of his death. That day twenty years he 
had been called by his Maker to give an account of his stewardship, 
having died in consequence of a wound received in the discharge of 
his duty as hospital surgeon ; and now, twenty years afterwards, I, 
who had in early life enjoyed much of his favour and well-remem- 
bered kindness, stood by his gravestone for the first time. Good, 
worthy, excellent Dr. Lang ! it required not the anecdotes still told 
in this far-off place of your labours and repose ; nor the flattering 
tribute to your worth and memory in the Naval Reminiscences of 
Captain Scott ; nor even the handsome testimonial which your brother 
officers, of both services, have inscribed on your tombstone within 
the hospital gates, and again on the marble tablet on the walls of the 
church ; to inform me of the fact that you were indeed one of the 
Pilgrims of Mercy, or that — 

" Of first-rate talent in the healing art, 
Unwearied zeal, benevolence of heart; 
For rich, for poor, alike for high and low, 
Your philanthropic heart felt pity's glow. 

But it was delightful to know that your character was so justly 
estimated by those who had the means of knowing, and the capacity 
for appreciating, your many and varied excellences of head and 
heart. 

The church at Port Royal, in which is placed the beautiful tablet 
to the memory of my friend and relative, which I have above referred 
to, is worthy of a visit, were it only to observe the many tablets on 
its walls, inscribed with evidences of the destructiveness of yellow 
fever, which so often visits this part of the island. Port Royal, as 
some of my readers may be aware, stands on the extremity of a long, 
low, projecting, sandy point of land, which runs out from the side of 
the bay opposite Kingston, and which, by running across, (so as only 
to leave a neck as an entrance,) forms the bay or harbour of King- 
ston. Outside, the entrance to the harbour is obstructed, and in 
part protected, by a number of low sandy islets, which make the 
navigation somewhat difficult for sailing vessels, or during the dark- 
ness of night. And it is to this part of the island — Port Royal and 
its neighbourhood — that the reader may safely ascribe all that he 
may have read or heard of the unhealthiness of the climate of 
Jamaica. To talk of the island generally as unhealthy, is nothing 
short of a villainous scandal. It is quite the reverse. And I question 
if there are, in the whole limits of this fair world, more healthy loca- 
tions than are to be found among the lovely velvety vales, or amidst 
the mountain ranges and rugged crags of Jamaica's fair isle. And 
were there only this one island in the whole surrounding sea, the 



CUBA. 99 

poet would liave "been only just wlien he described the "West Indies 
as being a place where 

" The breath of ocean wanders through their vales, 
In morning breezes and in evening gales. 
Earth from her lap perennial verdure pours, 
Arnbrosial fruits and amaranthine flowers. 
Over wild mountains and luxuriant plains, 
Nature in all the pomp of beauty reigns." 

But the island is not all equally healthy ; and that Port Royal 
must be understood as excepted from the general character of salu- 
brity which the island deserves, most persons will be satisfied, in 
visiting the interior of the parish church in that place, and having 
his attention directed to the many tablets on its walls, commemo- 
rative of the ravages of yellow fever, and remembering it is the few 
who are thus chronicled, while the many lie in unmarked and unre- 
membered graves. I was particularly struck by one neat simple 
tablet, erected (as it bears) " by their sorrowing commander,'^ to the 
memory of three youths, of the respective ages of thirteen, fifteen, 
and sixteen years — all of them midshipmen belonging to the same 
ship, and all of whom had fallen victims to yellow fever at Port 
Royal at about the same time. Poor boys ! they had chosen a gal- 
lant but a dangerous profession ; and had they fallen in the strife of 
contending ships, or midst the storms of elemental war, there would 
have been something so natural in their mode of exit from the 
scene, <that the mind might not have been so impressed with the 
hearing of it. But 

" They fell not in the battle's tug, or while their hopes were high; 
They sunk beneath the withering power of a scorching tropic sky."- ^ 



CHAPTER VII. 



* The Negro, spoiled of all that nature gave 
To free-born man, thus sunk into a slave ; 
His passive limbs, to measured tasks confined, 
Obey the impulse of another mind — 
A silent, secret, terrible control. 
That rules his sinews and restrains his soul. 
Where'er their grasping arms the spoilers spread, 
The Negro's joys, the Negro's virtues fled," 



" still, slavery ! thou art a bitter draught. 
Though thousands have been made to drink of thee." 

Sterne. 

A SAIL in the steamer, of somewhat less than four days, takes 
the traveller from Jamaica to the town of Havanna, in the island of 
Cuba, situated between north latitude 19° and 23°, and west longi- 
tude 74° and 85°. Cuba is the largest of the West Indian Islands, 



100 CUBA. 

Ibeing not less than seven hundred miles in length, by about eighty 
miles of average breadth, covering an area of about thirty-six thou- 
sand square miles, and at present containing a population of nearly 
a million and a half. It was discovered by Columbus on 28th Oc- 
tober 1492, and enjoys the unfortunate distinction of having been 
the scene of the greatest of the cruelties perpetrated by his follow- 
ers on the unresisting natives. Columbus named it Ferdinando, or, 
as some say, ^^ Juana,'^ but it speedily regained its ancient Indian 
name of " Cuba.^^ It is now, and has all along (with the exception 
of the occupation of it by Great Britain for about a year) been in 
the possession of Spain, and it is now the chief of her slave colonies. 
For this, and for other substantial reasons, to be immediately no- 
ticed, Cuba is at present a place to which much interest attaches, 
and towards which a good deal of public attention is drawn. 

The sail from Kingston, Jamaica, to the town of Havanna, in the 
island of Cuba, is along the south side of the first-named island — 
thence by the Grand Cayman, (a low sandy islet of considerable 
extent, famous for the turtle that frequent it, and dangerous to 
mariners,) on the east end of which we could see a vessel stranded, 
and on her beam ends, the sea breaking over her at every return of 
the waves. 

On passing the Cayman, the sail lay along the coast of Cuba, 
round Point Antonio, and past the ledge of rocks called the Collo- 
radoes, on which the very steamship in which I sailed — the Tay— 
had gone ashore and been very nearly lost only a very few years 
before. Enlivened as the scene on board the steamer was by a very 
varied and miscellaneous freight of passengers, many of them destined 
for California, and with so many objects in sight, from time to time, 
to interest and amuse and call telescopes into requisition, the pro- 
gress of time was scarcely remarked ; and it was with agreeable sur- 
prise that, about six o'clock of a very fine morning, on reaching the 
deck of the steamship, I found her entering the noble harbour of 
Havanna. Never will I forget the inspiriting nature of the beautiful 
scene. In point of formation, the harbour of Havanna has been 
-justly described as being in shape like a trefoil, or shamrock — of 
which the entrance represents the stalk. This entrance is guarded 
by two seemingly very strong forts, named respectively the Punta 
and the Moro, standing on the right and left. Besides these two 
fortresses for protection, the harbour of Havanna is guarded by three 
other protective citadels, named respectively Cabanas, Principe, and 
Atares. At the time of my visit the harbour was crowded with 
shipping ; and so numerous and so various were the flags that were 
flying, that one might have supposed there were here marine repre- 
sentatives from all the nations of the world. I believe a similar scene 
presents itself here nearly at all times ; and some idea of the num- 



HAVANNA. 101 

ber of ships frequenting the port of Havanna, (which is of course by 
far the largest sea-port in Cuba) may be gathered from the fact that 
the American tonnage alone, now employed in the trade with Cuba, 
is 476,773 tons. This is exclusive of the very large amount of 
British tonnage similarly engaged, and exclusive also of the tonnage 
of all the vessels from every other part of the globe. Indeed the 
study of the flags from the deck of the steamer was often a very 
amusing one. The British ensign, and the star and stripes of the 
United States of America, floated conspicuous and from many a 
mast-head. There were also many other well-known insignia of the 
" battle and the breeze ;'^ but there were also many which it passed 
my naval reminiscences to discover the country of, without inquiry 
or assistance — and sometimes despite of both. 

Landing at Havanna — or to give it the more sonorous name with 
which Spain has dignified it — landing on the quay of ^' La Siempre 
Fidelissima Ciudad de San Cristobal de la Habanna'' — the first things 
to strike the stranger — at least if his landing be in the morning, 
previous to ten o'clock — will be the extreme noise, bustle, and acti- 
vity of the scene into which he is suddenly plunged. Noises of 
every description assail his ears, sights of various kinds accost his 
eyes, and (last not least) odours of multifarious characters salute his 
olfactories ; and for these it is best he should be prepared. There- 
after, and after having called on such officials or other residents as he 
may have letters to, or has resolved to pay his respects to, (among 
the latter of whom will generally be the gentleman who now holds, 
so honourably and so usefully, the important office of Consul-general 
for Great Britain in the island of Cuba, and to whose personal kind- 
ness I rejoice to have this opportunity of paying a passing tribute;) 
the first act of the stranger should be to hire a volante or quitrin, and 
take a drive in and about the town of Havanna, getting, if possible, a 
friend acquainted with the locality to accompany him in his ride. These 
vehicles are numerous, and are to be obtained at and after the rate 
of something less than a dollar (from three to four "pesetas'^) an hour. 
The distinction between the volante and the quitrin consists simply 
in this, that while the hood of the former is immovable, the hood of 
the latter shifts up and down, so that it can be thrown back when 
the heat of the sun is not too intense. They constitute almost the 
only kind of carriage used in Cuba, and their use is nearly universal. 
So universal, that I question whether there is any one article a 
young Spaniard or Creole of Cuba would sooner name as one of the 
indispensables of gay life in Havanna. It is not easy to give in writ- 
ing a description of this unique but singularly graceful and pictu- 
resque vehicle, which will convey a graphic idea of its appearance 
to a reader ; and the aid of a draughtsman has accordingly been 
called in to assist the following attempt. It is hoped that the two 



102 HAV ANNA— THE VOLANTE, ETC. 

combined will give the reader a graphic idea of the most appropriate 
and useful national vehicles to be found in any country in the world. 

The volante or quitrin of Havanna has the head of a phaeton, and 
is placed upon two wheels of at least six feet in diameter. These 
wheels again are situated far back, at the very extremity of the shafts, 
the body of the carriage being suspended by leathern straps or springs, 
and placed so low, that the head of the traveller is never above, and 
is generally below, the level of the upper section of the wheels. 
The shafts of the volante are very long, and the horse or mule (the 
latter species of animal being in most general use) is attached to the 
vehicle by traces ; the back band being fixed to rings placed at the 
outer extremity of the shaft ; so that there is no portion of the shaft 
before the horse's shoulder — or, indeed, nearer thereto than the back 
part of the saddle, on which the driver rides en postillion. The 
shafts being very long, there is thus necessarily a long space between 
the croupe of the horse and the splash-board of the carriage. The 
object gained by this, as well as that secured by the universal prac- 
tice of plaiting and tying up the tail of the horse or mule, is protec- 
tion from mud in event of the roads being dirty. 

The volante, or quitrin, is generally drawn by one horse or mule ; 
and, from the narrowness of the streets intra muros, it would be in- 
convenient to have more than one in very general use. This fact 
has given rise to the statement that, by police regulation, it is pro- 
hibited to drive more than one horse abreast in a volante within the 
walls of Havanna — a statement, however, for which there is no other 
foundation. Without the walls, and in the interior of the island, 
volantes are frequently seen with two and even three horses or mules 
abreast ; the second and third, if there be so many, being harnessed 
and attached to the carriage, outside the shafts, and much after the 
fashion known in Scotland under the term " outrigger.''^ The con- 
ductor, called il calesero, is generally, if not always, a negro slave, 
and he rides on the horse or mule ; and, where more than one is 
used, the outrigger, or one of the outriggers, is the one selected for 
that purpose. At first sight, and looking to the size and position of 
the wheels, the extreme length of the carriage, the distance of the 
horse from his draught,- and the top-weight of heavy silver-mounted 
harness, and of the rider, which the animal carries, the impression 
is that the volante, or quitrin, is a carriage which must be very 
heavy to draw. But the smallness of the mules and horses in gene- 
ral use, the distances travelled, and the speed at which they move, 
lead to the conclusion that this is a mistake. At all events, this 
carriage is certainly a kind of conveyance remarkably well suited to 
a country like Cuba, where the streets of the towns are ill-paved, ill- 
kept, and uneven, and the country roads in general miserably bad. 
The wheels being very wide apart, it is next to impossible to over- 



HAVANNA— THE VOL ANTE, ETC. 103 

turn a volantc ; and, being very high, the ruts and stones upon the 
roads do not much incommode the traveller. 

The private quitrin is usually a very handsome affair — glittering 
in silver ornaments, as does also the harness and other accoutrements 
of the horse and rider. My London friend and fellow-traveller, Mr. 

D , formed a desire to transport one of them from the Paseo 

Isabel in Cuba, to Hyde Park, London ; and, partly from curiosity, 
and partly to know what the experiment might cost, I inquired at 
various parties the price of such a vehicle, and found it to be some- 
where between £90 and £120, according to the amount of ornament. 
But, without the black calesero, and his rich but outre dress, the 
volante would lose half of its attractions. He seems as if he were 
" to the manner born ;'' and the inability of transporting him with 
the carriage, 

" As slaves cannot breathe in England," 

was in itself a preventive to my enthusiastic friend carrying his 
intention into effect. Indeed, the private calesero is a very unique 
object. In dress a cross between an officer of the Haytian army 
and a French postilion, he is usually garbed in a very handsome 
livery, richly embroidered with gold or silver lace, and a black hat 
with gold or silver band. The dress consisting of a jacket made of 
scarlet, green, or purple cloth or velvet, with white knee-breeches, 
and black leather greaves, boots or gaiters, highly polished, orna- 
mented with silver, and coming nearly to a union with the shoe, but 
leaving at the front part of the foot a bare space, through which the 
black skin of the calesero displays itself. I did not observe a single 
instance in which the driver had stockings, but the black skin of the 
African had much the appearance of black silk ones. 

Such is the private quitrin or volante ; and it being considered a 
mark of wealth to change the vehicle and livery almost every year, 
while the old ones are sold for public conveyances, the volantes to 
be had on hire are just the tarnished dittos of those above described. 
For short distances the rate of hire is from three pesetas (sixty 
cents) to a dollar per hour. For longer distances, or where the 
vehicle is to be kept for several hours, a bargain should be made. 

I could not ascertain that there were any means of finding out 
the exact number of such carriages at present in Havanna. They 
must, however, be very numerous. Almost every family of any 
note or means has its indispensable volante standing in the arched 
gateway, which thus forms at once the coach-house and the entrance 
to the dwellings, and ofttimes also the servants' hall ; and I find it 
stated in public returns that, at the census in 1827, the carriages, 
private as well as public, amounted to 2651. In that year, the 
number of houses, taking those without as well as those within the 



104 VIEWS OF HAVANNA. 

walls, was 11,639, (of whicli no less than 7968 were extra-mural.)' 
Since that time the number of houses has increased very greatly, 
and (^particularly since the passing of the English Sugar Duties 
Bill in 1846) that of carriages has increased in a still greater ratio j 
so that, at present, it would be quite safe to estimate their number 
at considerably above three thousand. Nor will the estimate appear 
extravagant to any one who has seen the display of vehicles on the 
Paseo Isabel or Paseo Tacon, on a festive occasion. 

Besides the forts or citadels, to which reference has already been 
made, and into which it is very difficult for a stranger to obtain ac- 
cess — so jealous is Spain in all things relating to her power — there 
are many objects of interest in the town of Havanna. But the first 
thing the visitor ought to do, should be to obtain one or two of the 
best general views to be had of the very unique but villainously odo- 
riferous city in which he finds himself for the first time. In the 
approach by sea, he has already had one of the finest views of it. 
There is another very favourite view to be had from a hill, named to 
me " Indio/^ which stands on the road between Eegla and Guana- 
bugo, on the side of the harbour opposite the town; and another 
looking back on the town from the road to Cerro, which is about 
three miles from Havanna. These views are all very fine, but they 
are all too distant for giviog the visitor, on his immediate arrival, a 
bird's-eye view of the place. For this latter purpose, I advise a 
visit to the top of the hill on which stands the Cabanas fortress, 
which overlooks the town and harbour, and from which a very beau- 
tiful and very accessible general view of Havanna is to be had. To 
one who has never visited the tropics, it is difficult to give a clear 
enough idea of the bright vividness with which each distinctive 
building and characteristic of a tropical town stands out in the clear 
liquid light, without any haze or smoke to interrupt the view. After 
obtaining a general view of the whole, the next thing should be to 
visit, in detail, the various objects of interest which the town con- 
tains : such as — the church in which mass was first performed in the 
island by Columbus and his followers in 1492; the cathedral, and 
the tomb therein where repose the ashes of the great Colon; the 
Dominican church ; the Plaza de Armas, in which is the residence 
of the Captain-general, as the governor of the island is called ; the 
Tacon theatre and the Paseo Tacon ; the Tacon prison ; the Campo 
Santo, or public cemetery of Havanna; the Caza Beneficencia ; the 
Yalla de G-allos or cock-pits, &c., — devoting to each of them such a 
measure of time and attention as the tastes, professions and habits 
of the visitor may dispose him to bestow. 

^ In the cathedral mass is performed every morning about seven or 
eight o'clock, and this is, therefore a favourable, as well as a favour- 
ite hour of the day for visiting it. It is an ancient building, with 



TDMB OF COLUMBUS. 105 

\ nothing very striking or remarkable either in its style or construc- 
I tion ; but it is at the same time a handsome and elegantly finished 
edifice. There are some pictures of merit on its walls ; in particu- 
lar, one small picture near the principal altar, and which has below 
it an inscription on a brass plate, descriptive of its claims on acount 
of its great antiquity, as well as of its excellence. On the right 
of the principal altar there is the marble tablet on the wall above 
the spot where lies what was mortal of him 

"Who scann'd Columbia through, the wave," 

This tablet is about six or eight feet square, and contains a highly 
relieved bust of the great Colon, bearing the image usually given as 
his likeness. Beneath the image is an inscription, which, of course, 
says nothing of the chains and imprisonments with which the grati- 
tude of Spain rewarded this man — the greatest of her benefactors, 
and the discoverer of a new world. The inscription is in these 
words — 

" restos e imagen del grande Colon ! 
Mi siglos durad guardados en la uma 
Y en remembranza de nuestra nacion." 

Translation. 

" remains a,n image of the great Columbus ! 
For a thousand ages continue preserved in this urn 
And in the remembrance of our nation." 

Columbus died in Spain, and his body rested for some time there; 
first in a convent at Yalladolid, and afterwards in a magnificent 
monument in the Carthusian monastery at Seville, erected to the 
memory of Columbus by King Ferdinand, and on which is recorded 
the fact that' — • 

" To Castille and to Leon 
A new world Columbus gave." 

In the year 1636 the justly venerated remains were, with great pomp 
and circumstance, removed from Seville, and transported to His- 
paniola or St. Domingo, then the chief possession of Spain in the 
West Indian Archipelago ; but on the island of St. Domingo, or 
Hispaniola, being ceded to the French, the honoured remains were 
again, with pomp and array greater even than before, removed to the 
place where they now lie, in the cathedral of the city of Havanna. 
This last transition was completed on the 15th of January, 1796; 
and since then, the bones of the greatest of discoverers have remained 
undisturbed. Whether the last is to be their final migration, remains 
yet to be seen. Whether Spain is to retain Cuba, and whether, in 
the event of her being induced or compelled to cede her possession 
of the island, these venerated relics of the discoverer of the New 
World will be allowed to rest in the cathedral of Havanna, are 



105 CUBA— SLAVE TRADE. 

questions which remaiu yet to be determined, but which will, in all 
probability, not remain much longer unresolved. I shall not here 
attempt to discuss the question of whether any justifiable effort could 
be made by the United States of America to possess herself of Cuba, 
by purchase or otherwise ; or whether the American government 
would be acting wisely were it to make such an attempt ; or whether 
the debt, owing by Spain to Great Britain, would entitle the latter 
to forbid and prevent any such contract : but 1 am inclined to be- 
lieve, that Cuba would be a much better customer of England in the 
hands of our enterprising brethren of the New World, than she is 
at present in the hands of Spain ; and I will without hesitation affirm, 
that the loss of Cuba would only be a just retribution — an act of 
retributive justice — suffered by Spain, not only for her cruelties to 
the aborigines, but also for the dishonourable manner in which she 
has made use of her possession of this island to evade the perform- 
ance of her obligations contracted to and with England in the matter 
of the slave-trade. There can be no doubt of the fact, that during 
the last year the importation of slaves into the island of Cuba has 
been carried on in fall vigour — so vigorously and extensively, that 
the price of slaves had fallen, in consequence of the plentiful supply, 
from four hundred and fifty or five hundred, to from two hundred 
and fifty to three hundred dollars. This fact is notorious, and I heard 
it authenticated by official authority. It is equally notorious in the 
island itself, that the agent of the Queen Mother of Spain was and 
is extensively engaged in the infamous traffic ; and it is more than 
suspected that, directly or indirectly, his royal mistress is a large 
participator in the heavy gains her agent realizes from this trade in 
human fl.esh. Indeed, the traffic is little short of being a legalized 
one : the amount of dollars payable to the governor or to the 
Government (for there is much difference between these two) being, 
if not fixed by law or order, at least as well understood as if it 
were so. All this is, of course, in direct and manifest violation of 
the engagements and treaties made by Spain with England ; and it 
is an ascertained fact that fully one-half of the slaves in Cuba are 
there held in abject bondage in violation of these solemn treaties 
and engagements. Indeed, were it otherwise, it were nearly impos- 
sible that the Spanish colonists of Cuba could find slaves to cultivate 
their fields. Every one who knows Cuba, and the brutal manner in 
which the great mass of the agricultural slaves are treated there, 
will laugh at the idea of the slave population of Cuba being self- 
supporting. Thanks to the lesson our Sugar Duties Bill of 1846 
has taught them, the Cubans know well not only that slave laboui 
is cheaper than free labour — so much cheaper that they can actually 
make, for seven or eight shillings per hundredweight, the sugar that 
costs the British; Danish, or French colonistS; at the very least, ten 



CUBA— SLAVE TRADE. 107 

to twelve or fourteen shillings per hundredweight. But their know- 
ledge of the statistics of the trade does not stop here ; they also 
know that it is much cheaper to import slaves than to breed them. 
The planter in Cuba found this to be the case, even when the vigi- 
lance of the British and French cruisers had made slaves so scarce 
in Cuba, that the price of an able-bodied one was fully five hundred 
dollars. Of course, now that such vigilance has been, for a time, 
at least, relaxed, and the price of slaves has fallen to from two hun- 
dred and fifty to three hundred dollars, the greater economy of 
keeping up the breed by importation is too plain to be overlooked. 
Hence it is that the idea of a self-supporting system saems to be 
quite out of the Cuban's calculations, and that in the barracoons on 
his estates there are often to be found numerous bands of males and 
but a very few females, or oftimes none at all. It has been said, and 
it is generally credited by intelligent parties resident in Cuba, that 
the average duration of the life of a Cuban slave, after his arrival 
in the island, does not exceed seven or eight years. In short, that 
he is worked out in that time. His bodily frame cannot stand the 
excessive toil for a longer period ; and, after that average period, his 
immortal spirit escapes from the tortured tenement of clay. Ye ex- 
tenuators of slavery and of the slave trade, ponder this ascertained 
fact. Is it not enough to make the flesh creep, and to unite all 
civilized mankind to put an end at least to the traffic in slaves ? 
Civilized men may reasonably differ in opinion as to how this is best 
to be accomplished — whether by treaties, commissions and blockad- 
ing squadrons, or by legislative measures having for their object the 
diminishing the heavy seductive profits now realizing from the pro- 
duce of slave cultivation and manufacture, or by a wise union of 
both. But surely one and all must agree in the position, that a 
nobler work never was adventured on by any nation than the de- 
struction of the slave trade. For the present, England and France 
have the honour of standing almost alone in the furtherance of this 
\ great cause. It is to be hoped that neither of them will abandon 
i their philanthropic labours, even although they may find it expedient 
to change the direction of them — to alter the modus operandi. It 
: is the rather to be hoped that their example will dispose the 
i other great powers, who have themselves already wiped off the 
stain of a participation in the slave trade from their national 
! escutcheons, to follow the example, and join in the crusade. 
' The United States of America, though they have not yet put an 
: end to slavery on their own soil, have, at all events, prohibited the 
I importation of slaves into their Union, and have, therefore, every 
interest to move them to aid in compelling Spain and Brazil to the 
adoption of the same course. Denmark not only preceded other 
I countries in declaring the slave trade to be piracy, but she has 



108 CUBA— SLAVE TRADE. 

lately manumitted tte slaves in her own colonies. And when, if 
ever, the standards of England and of France, the ^^ stars and 
stripes'' of the United States of America (do not ^^ the stripes" 
sound ominously ?) and the national ensigns of Denmark and of 
Holland, are found zealously co-operating in this sacred cause of 
humanity, who can doubt hut that this trade in human! flesh, this 
gross violation of all natural right and law, would speedily he sup- 
pressed ? But even should England and France stand alone, it is 
to he hoped that they will not desert the cause. The absence of 
co-operation may render expedient a change in the mode of carry- 
ing on the operations ; but there can be no cause either for deser- 
tion or for despair. Nature, and the Grod of Nature, are manifestly 
fighting on the same side ; and no one who has read the signs of 
human progress for the last century, but must see that slavery and 
the slave trade are among the things that are doomed to give way 
before the advancing light of the sun of civilization. As to the 
mode and time for putting an end to slavery, where it is interwoven 
with the institutions of the country, as is the case in the southern 
states of America, there may be some, there is much, difficulty ; 
and I confess I am of those who think that some of the emancipa- 
tionists of the United States, and of their brethren in England, 
have acted and are acting injudiciously, in the conduct by which 
they have attempted and are attempting to precipitate events in 
that country. But slavery in those countries into which the im- 
portation of slaves is not permitted, or secretly connived at, is but 
a modified slavery, compared with that which exists in countries 
into which there is such importation. Assuredly, then, the first 
step is to put an end to the traffic — to dry up the source of the 
supplies from without — ere we can expect either much to amelio- 
rate the condition of, or to strike the shackles from those who are 
within. Nor is it only by treaties that Spain and Brazil are bound 
to cease their illegal traffic in human flesh. England has paid them 
large sums of money as the condition of their doing so ; and these 
sums they have received and accepted, under the annexed and 
expressed condition. It has been unjustly said by some writers on 
the other side of the Atlantic — writers evidently in the pay of 
those who think it for their interest to prevent their country from 
sharing in the glory Grreat Britain has acquired and will acquire, 
by her eff'orts for suppressing and putting an end to the horrors of 
the slave trade — that G-reat Britain has no right to interfere with 
Spain and Brazil, as regards this trade in their own colonies ; that 
slavery is a 'domestic institution, with which foreign nations have 
nothing whatever to do ; and that, in debarring Spain and Brazil 
from the conduct of this traffic, the British lion is doing little more 
than acting the bully. Such writers forget the contract part of the 



CUBA— SLAVE TRADE. 109 

matter. Were England seeking, by threat or force of arms, to 
promote the emancipation of slaves within any country or any 
colony, large or small, there might be some foundation for the 
argument. As it is, there is none. She is only demanding and 
requiring that Spain and Brazil should do what they have promised 
and engaged to do, what they have been paid for doing, but what 
they have hitherto failed to perform. Plappy is it for England that, 
in enforcing these claims, she is fighting in the sacred cause of 
humanity; and happy will it be for the other powerful nations 
already referred to, if their rulers see it their duty, or their interest, 
to give their zealous co-operation in the same great and noble 
cause. 

Another argument against enforcing our slave treaties, which is 
not unfrequently used, particularly at home, is, that the effectual 
suppression of the slave trade is simply an impossibility. In other 
words that the profit acquired by the importation of a slave is just 
in proportion to the difficulty of importing him; and that human 
cupidity is such, that any amount of risk will be run, where there is 
the prospect of a proportionate gain. The corollary from this, of 
course, is, that the effect of sending out cruisers to put down the 
trade, is but' to increase to the slaves the awful horrors of what is 
called the middle passage, by causing the slavers to be built small 
and low, and solely with a view to their sailing powers and capaci- 
ties, and without any regard to the health and comfort of the unfor- 
tunate slaves themselves. 

This argument is not unfrequently heard even in England. But 
(apart from the fact that it only touches one mode of suppressing 
the slave trade), its importance diminishes on investigation, and that 
for this simple reason, that there is a limit beyond which the price of a 
slave cannot go even in Cuba or Brazil. The slave-owner cannot 
afford an^ price for a slave, or more than the prices he himself gets 
for his slave-grown produce enable him to give. This, then, fixes a 
maximum of the price to be received for the article to be imported. 
The cost of importation, on the other hand, just depends on the ex- 
tent of difficulty in the way. And in point of fact — and this is the 
practical answer — when the slave treaties were a few years ago better 
enforced, when the English and French preventive cruisers on the 
coast of Africa were more numerous and more vigilant, and conse- 
quently more successful, the price of slaves so rose in Cuba, that the 
demand for them greatly abated — seeing that at the price of impor- 
tation the planters could scarce afford to buy. This fact is indis- 
putable, and speaks volumes, and furnishes the best argument in 
favour of the position with which I conclude these remarks — intro- 
duced here par j)arentJiese — that'justice, duty, interest, and humanity, 
call upon Great Britain to enforce the slave treaties, and that it were 

10 



110 HAVANNA—FRANCISCAN CHURCH. 

just and noble, and a wise policy in the United States, as well as in 
the governments of France, Denmark, and Holland, to unite with 
England in the sacred cause. Besides, it is not only, or even chiefly, 
by means of preventive squadrons that the Spanish and Brazillian 
slave trade is to be effectually suppressed. Great Britain and France 
have other effective measures within their reach ; and of these some 
mention will be made in an after part of this book. 

But to return to the celebrities of Havanna. The church in which 
Columbus first had mass performed, when he landed at Cuba in 1492, 
is not interesting in any way, save because it enjoys the distinction 
referred to. In the Dominican church, the only object that struck 
me was one common enough in churches in Catholic countries, being 
an altar-piece where the scene of the " Marys at the crucifixion" is 
represented by highly-relieved, tawdrily-dressed female figures, one 
of them having a crown on, and both exhibiting all the appearances 
or signs of the deepest agony and woe. At the time (^ my first visit 
to this fashionable place of Roman Catholic worship in Havanna, 
there were a number of devotees performing their devotions around 
the shrine or altar-piece in question, which, an inscription tells the 
visitor, was erected by special authority from a Pope Pius. In the 
dim cathedral light the eyes of the waxen figures seemed to be liquid 
with real tears, and their bosoms to swell and heave beneath the 
yellow satin, with real heart-rending sighs ; while on the cheeks of 
some of the worshippers who knelt around, there were the evidences 
of sincerity and of genuine sorrow. I confess I cannot view a scene 
like this without emotion ; and while my calmer reason does deeply 
deplore the fact that such devotion should be elicited by the exhibi- 
tion of a mere semblance of human woe, I cannot refuse my respect, 
where the sincerity of the act is so apparent, much less could I "curse 
the shrine" where so many devout worshippers kneel to heaven. 

There is another church, or at least a building which was once 
a church, in Havanna, which I deem worthy of notice, as it affords 
me an opportunity of recording a characteristic anecdote. 

On passing through one of the narrow streets of this town of 
strange scenes, handsome buildings, but unsavoury smells, and in 
the immediate neighbourhood of the British Consulate, I observed 
an inscription over the door of a large building, which ran thus — 

" La Commissaria de obras de Fortificacion." 

Struck with the church-like appearance of the edifice, (despite 
its built-up windows,) and surprised that a consecrated building 
should, by so priest-ridden a people, be made a storehouse for 
warlike commodities, I made some inquiry on the subject; and, 
learning that the building was called the " Church of the Fran- 
ciscans,'' my previous knowledge of some passages of Cuban his- 



HAVANNA-FRANCISCAN CHURCH. Ill 

tory enabled me to understand tlie nature and cause of the transi- 
tion from a Roman Catholic church to a military storehouse. 

The state religion in Cuba is, of course, that of the Eoman 
Catholic church ; and, true to its natural policy, that church has 
there succeeded in getting liberty of puUic worship denied to all 
creeds save its own. But after the storming of the town and for- 
tress of Havanna, by the British expedition under Lord Albe- 
marle, in 1762, his lordship, as governor, demanded of the Roman 
Catholic bishop that he should set aside one of ihQ churches for 
the Protestants to worship in ] and a somewhat amusing corres- 
pondence ensued between Lord Albemarle and the reverend bishop 
on the subject. The bishop, if he did not explicitly refuse, at 
least diplomatized and evaded the demand, till brought to the 
point by the intimation from Lord Albemarle that, if a church was 
not assigned, ^' I shall take that which seems to be most suitable." 
This produced a reply, that since he. Lord Albemarle, ^J had so 
resolved, he might take whatever church he chose /' and it would 
be only prejudice to deny that, in this reply, there was much both 
of dignity and simplicity. The British governor took the bishop 
at his word. He chose the Church of the Franciscans ; and during 
the one year's occupation of the island by Britain, and till the 
restitution of it to Spain in 1763, public worship, according to the 
forms of the Protestant Church of England, was regularly per- 
formed in the Franciscan church of Havanna. Then, of course, 
it was restored to Spain with the rest of the island, in accordance 
with that extra liberal and lavish policy which has so often guided 
British councils, leading at one time to the expenditure of great 
amounts of blood and treasure in the acquisition of territory, (wit- 
ness in these seas Martinique, Gruadaloupe, St. Thomas', and Cuba,) 
and the almost free surrender, or gift of them, back to the powers 
whence they were taken. Since that restitution of the island to 
Spain, the church of the Franciscans has ceased to be used as a 
church. Is its disuse to be ascribed to its supposed contamination 
by the heretics ? One is almost irresistibly tempted to apply the 
'post hoc propter hoc style of argument to such a case ; and no one 
who has personally witnessed the light-obstructing spirit evinced 
by the Romish church, in such a dark spot as the isle of Cuba, 
where she is alone and triumphant in her domination, and is 
allowed the most ample scope for her pasos* and other ceremonials, 
will think the deduction an extravagant or an unjust one. At all 
events, the fact is as I have described it. The church selected by 

* A paso is the name given in Spain to the idol figures borne along in the reli- 
gious processions. The paso, however, strictly speaking, means only the figure of 
our Saviour, during his Passion. Such processions and pasos are numerous m 
Cuba. 



112 CUBA— JUDICIAL SYSTEM, ETC. 

Lord Albemarle as a place for Protestant worship, is now used by 
Spain as a government storehouse — " La commissaria de obras de 
fortificacion/^ 

It may seem a contradiction to the character above assigned by 
me to the island of Cuba, as the seat both of a civil and a religious 
despotism, that there should be a considerable number of newspa- 
pers published in Havanna. But such is the fact. Indeed, it is a 
somewhat anomalous circumstance connected with the history and 
present state even of the mother-country of Spain, that, notwith^ 
standing her literary deficiencies and state of ignorance, of which 
so much has been written, newspapers appear to flourish greatly 
both in Spain and her colonies. In Madrid there are no fewer 
than thirteen daily papers — being nearly as great a number as is 
published even in London ; and some of these, such as the Heraldo, 
Clamor Publico, &c., have a very large circulation. But the news- 
papers of Havanna are most of them of small size, and much filled 
with advertisements ; amongst which those offering negroes, some- 
times female negroes with infant children, to be sold '^ with or 
without the child,^' will strike the mind of an Englishman with 
anything but an agreeable feeling. These papers are likewise all 
under a very strict and rigorous censorship — so strict that the 
wonder is that there should be so many, and that they are so good 
as they are. 

The island of Cuba sends deputies to the Spanish Cortes at Ma- 
drid — -Spain, like republican France, having in this respect adopted 
a course which many think, and the writer amongst the number, 
might be very advantageously followed in regard to the colonies of 
G-reat Britain. Besides the advantage of having colonial interests 
represented at home by parties nominated by the colonists them- 
selves, and in whose fairness of representation the colonists repose 
confidence, there could not surely be a better mode of making our 
colonial brethren practically aware that they are, as they are en- 
titled to be, regarded as an integral part of the empire. Much 
might be written on this subject; but it were out of place to con- 
tinue it here — and therefore to return to Cuba. 

The Governor or Captain-general of Cuba may be said to enjoy 
nearly despotic power. Indeed I was assured by a very accomplished 
travelling Spaniard, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Cuba, 
and whose society I afterwards enjoyed during my voyage thence to 
America, that the present Governor (Roncali, Count of Alcoy) exer- 
cised his power here in a way more completely despotic than the 
head of the monarchy of Spain could, or at least does do, in the 
mother country. This gentleman, himself a member of the legal 
profession, assured me that he was by numbers of his own body in- 
formed that Iloncaii had, since his arrival in the island, constituted 



CUBA— JUDICIAL SYSTEM, ETC. 113 

himself as a supreme tribunal, having jurisdiction exclusive of, or 
co-ordinate with, that of all the other courts in the island, and com- 
petent to the adjudication of all kinds of cases. I had not the op- 
portunity of witnessing his Excellency's freaks in this so-called sum- 
mary court of justice ; but if half what I heard of it were true, it 
must be a strange sight, in a civilised country, to see a comparatively 
illiterate soldier professing to decide, of his own knowledge and judg- 
ment, and after a few minutes, chiefly occupied by his own laying 
down of the law, questions involving intricate facts, disputed rights, 
and important principles. The defendant is summoned to the Go- 
vernor's presence by a small writ, which contains no explanation 
save that a claim is made upon him by a party named ; and it is 
said that — as indeed in some courts in more civilised, or at least 
freer countries — the plaintiff, the person who first applies for Count 
Roncali's aid, has always the best chance. Such is an account of 
the " private courts of the Captain-general of Cuba," as it was com- 
municated to me on the spot. It is, however, only fair to add, that 
previous governors did something of the same kind, and also that 
other writers seem not to have regarded this secret tribunal, and 
its summary mode of procedure, in the same objectionable light as 
is here done. A late writer on Spain, when treating incidentally 
of her colonies, remarks, with reference to Cuba, that " the Gro- 
vernor gives audiences to the inhabitants in private disputes — a 
patriarchal procedure, by which much litigation is avoided'^ ! ! 

In the ordinary courts of the island, the judicial proceedings are 
conducted in writing, viva voce pleading being almost, if not wholly, 
unheard-of. The fees of the lawyers depend upon the length of 
the written pleadings, and the judges are also paid by fees. 

The law in use is, of course, that of the mother country of Spain, 
based, like that of Scotland, on the Code Justinian. The law of 
bankruptcy also seemed to me, from what I could learn of it, to be 
not very dissimilar, in principle at least, to that of Scotland. The 
affairs of a bankrupt are arranged, generally, under a concurso 
voluntarioy 'preventivo^ which seems a kind of trust-deed, by which 
the bankrupt is deprived of all power of alienating, or making 
away with his estate and effects to favoured creditors, or confident 
parties, to the prejudice of the general body. Another mode of 
winding up a bankrupt estate is by what is called a '■^ cession de 
biennes," which seemed in reality, as well as in name, to be some- 
thing like the Scotch deed of cesdo honorwn, whereby a debtor 
yields up everything to a trustee for the general behoof of his cre- 
ditors, on condition of getting a discharge, which discharge emanates 
from the court. 

Such is the nature of the ordinary tribunals of justice in the 
island of Cuba; but, of course. Count Roncali's ^'patriarchal" 

10* 



114 CUBA—SLAVERY. 

jurisdiction, as it is exclusive of these, so it sets itself above the 
principles which restrain the regularly trained judges. 

It is also saidj and universally credited, that the present Captain- 
general views the slave trade with an indulgent eye. At all events, 
it is indisputable that the importation of slaves into the island, 
which fell off greatly under the influence of England, and the ac- 
tivity of the English cruisers, during the latter years of the dynasty 
of the late governor, (Count O'Donnel,) has of late years, and since 
the Count of Alcoy assumed the reins of government, received a 
fresh impetus, and is now flourishing in fullest vigour. How far 
the Governor is personally concerned in the production of this 
result, it were next to impossible to ascertain exactly ; but assured- 
ly his correspondence with the representative of Britain in the 
island, as to the landing of slaves, in the course of which the Bri- 
tish Consul-general offered to give his Excellency ocular evidence 
of the truth of his informant's story — that slaves had been lately 
landed from a slaver, and were then in course of sale — does not 
indicate any desire either to suppress the trafiic or to keep faith 
with Britain. Indeed, it is publicly afiirmed that a regularly fixed 
fee (some fifty dollars a-head) is exacted by the Grovernor on each 
slave that is brought in, besides sundry other fees to the captain of 
the port or harbour-master, and other officials, who have the power 
of prevention more or less in their hands. In short, the system is 
a complete one, and completely inoculated into the principles of 
Cuban government. No doubt, a semblance of respect for the 
solemn treaties made with Britain, and for the entering into which 
Spain has been paid, is kept up in the island. The barbarian 
victims of the inhuman slave trade are exposed to sale not as slaves, 
but as ^^ goods" or " merchandise," (bultos,) and some such farce is 
occasionally exhibited as this : — A few of the imported slaves — 
such of them as are sick, disabled, infirm, or likely to die, and of 
course are of little or no value — are taken possession of by Govern- 
ment authority, and an attempt is made to '^ throw dust in the 
eyes of the English," by making a noise about the matter, and 
formally delivering up the miserable wretches, thus ^' seized," as 
slaves imported into Cuba, in violation of the solemn treaties made 
by Spain with England — much being vaunted, at the time, of 
Spanish honour and national good faith. If anything could make 
matters worse than the real disregard of the treaties, it would be 
conduct such as this — hypocrisy added to dishonesty, and the 
whole veiled in high-sounding words. And yet such pretended 
seizures and deliveries are often taking place. One had occurred 
only a few days before I reached Cuba, the number then seized 
bamg under twenty ; while the known number of slaves actually 
introduced into the island, during that and the previous month, 



CUBA— SLAVERY. 115 

had not been less than four thousand, and while the average rate 
of present import is not under two thousand per month. 

Could any one, who has personally ascertained the truth of trans- 
actions and occurrences such as those before recorded, feel much 
regret were Cuba to pass out of the hands of Spain into those of the 
United States Government, or of any other civilized country which 
would keep better faith. If Cuba is to be ceded or bought at a cheap 
rate. Great Britain has unquestionably a much better right to her 
than any other power ; and it were perhaps unjust, and, therefore, a 
thing England would not permit, were Spain to treat with any other 
country for the sale of Cuba, without first making payment of, or 
provision for, a large part of her debt to Great Britain. But the 
possession of Cuba by England were a matter more to be hoped for 
than to be expected. England had Cuba once, and generously (per- 
haps Quixotically) gave it back agaia to Spain. And to reacquire 
the possession, either by purchase or otherwise, would seem to be 
contrary to the general course of that policy which is now, and which 
has for a long time been pursued by our noble country ; for certainly, 
and particularly after the experience of late events in India, no one 
can justly accuse England of an undue thirst for territorial acquisi- 
tion. But I could not personally hear the grandiloquence of Spanish 
authorities in Cuba, or their contemptuous indifference to the treaties 
made with Great Britain, without almost wishing that some other 
power would step in, and obtain possession of the island. Were the 
United States of America to do so — and there is little doubt but the 
late secret expedition showed that the leaning of the popular mind 
was such that " the people,^^ at least, would not be very scrupulous 
about the modus acqidrendi — it would look something like retribu- 
tive justice, inasmuch as it would be the descendants, at least, of the 
country with which Spain has not kept faith, who would then be the 
instruments of avenging the deception. Without professing any 
extravagance of affection for America or Americans, or thinking 
them, as a nation, either so far advanced or so great as they think 
themselves, I confess I do regard them as infinitely nearer to our- 
selves by blood, and tongue, and tie of every kind, than any other 
nation on the face of the earth. 

No doubt, there are serious objections to the acquisition of Cuba 
by the United States of America. In the first place, there is the 
important want of a causa belli to justify anything like a forcible 
seizure. In not making with Spain such treaties as England has 
done, and covenanting with her for the suppression of the slave trade, 
and paying her money as the price of her consent, America has 
deprived herself of a justifying cause for warlike proceedings against 
Cuba, which she might now have turned to very good account. In 
the second place^ a successful arrangement for the sale of Cuba from 



116 CUBA—SLAVERY. ' 

Spain to America, not only labours under tlie little less than certainty 
of the powerful veto of England and France, but presumes that the 
cautious Yankee would pay Spain a much larger price for the posses- 
sion than the island would be worth to himself. Spanish writers on 
Cuba call it the brightest jewel in the Spanish crown. Whether it 
be a jewel or not, (and it may be so, were the fable true which 
makes each toad the possessor of a jewel,) Cuba is at least Spain's 
richest colonial possession, and a source of a great part of her reve- 
nue. The value of Cuba to Spain is but little known to those who 
deem the acquisition of it by the United States, by a transaction of 
sale and purchase, a matter of probability. Cuba contains a super- 
ficies of thirty-seven thousand square miles ] and a better idea of the 
extent of it will be formed by the Englishman, when he is reminded 
of the fact, that England (exclusive of Scotland) does not contain 
above 58,335 square miles. 'The present population of Cuba is esti- 
mated at 1,400,000— consisting of 610,000 whites, 190,000 free 
people of colour, and 600,000 slaves. Each of these slaves is worth 
from three hundred to three hundred and fifty dollars — making the 
gross value of the whole between one hundred and eighty and two 
hundred and ten millions of dollars, or (estimating the dollar at four 
shillings) between £36,000,000 and £42,000,000 sterling. Again, 
the value of exports from Cuba during 1848 was within a trifle of 
twenty-eight million of dollars, or £5,600,000 sterling; its imports 
during same year being 32,389,119 dollars. In the same year, the 
number of arrivals of ships at Cuban ports was 3740, and of depart 
ures 3310. Already there are nearly two hundred miles of railroad 
finished in the island, and above fifty miles more in course of being 
made. Indeed, the first railway laid down in the West Indies was 
laid down in Cuba. This railroad was originally formed to connect 
the capital Havanna, with the town of Guines, which is distant about 
twenty-five miles, through a smooth and fertile country. This rail- 
way is now connected with San Carlos de Matanzas, one of the prin- 
cipal seaports of the island, and a prosperous, though as yet but 
small town. Other branches connect the same railway with other 
parts of the coast ; and thus the whole length of railway already open 
is about one hundred and ninety-five miles. The engineer of the 
original line from Havanna to Guines was a Mr. Alfred Cruger, of 
America, but the capital was English, being negotiated for in Lon- 
don by Mr. Alexander Robertson. The nominal capital was about 
half a million, but, being negotiated for at a high percentage, it did 
not produce more than about £340,000. There are also several 
steamers plying between the difierent ports of the island, and, in 
particular, steamers from Havanna to Matanzas, (a sail of about fifty 
miles ;) and also steamers to Cardenas and St. Juan de Remedios, 
calling at intermediate places; besides a ferry steamer between 



CUBAN STATISTICS. 117 

Havanna and Regla, on the opposite side of the harbour of Havanna. 
To this add that, while the island is very fertile, and yields largely, 
even at present, and under deficient culture, there is not above two- 
fifths of it cultivated ; and not only is there a very large tract of 
fertile country uncultivated, but even many of those parts which are 
incapable of culture are covered with forests of mahogany, cedars, 
and a great variety of tropical and other woods of the most valuable 
kind. Cuba also contains valuable copper mines, which are now 
worked, and which are capable of being worked to much greater 
advantage and extent. 

These details may be useful to the party who wishes to form an 
opinion as to the probability of a compact between Jonathan and 
Don Hidalgo of Spain, for the sale and purchase of the island of 
Cuba, about which so much is said. It also explains, in some mea- 
sure, how it happens that Cuba is able to supply so liberally the 
Royal Exchequer of Spain, as to acquire for herself the more appro- 
priate than elegant title of ^^ The milch-cow of Spain.'^ 

Of course it is the fact that, by permitting the importation of 
slaves, a sufficient supply of good cheap labour is obtained, that 
makes Cuba so valuable a possession to Spain ; and equally of course, 
were America to acquire Cuba, the nefarious source of gain must 
cease. For although the United States of America have not yet 
followed the example of Great Britain, by the emancipation of the 
slaves within her territory — and it must in candour be admiitted 
that there still exist great difficulties in the way of her doing so — 
yet she has long ago blotted out participation in the slave trade from 
among her national delinquencies ; and it is not to be thought of, 
that she would go back upon her onward course so far as to permit 
the importation of slaves into any part of her dominions or pos- 
sessions. Indeed, an attempt so to do would cost that which a true 
American most dreads — would cost the Union itself. A legalising 
of slave traffic by America, in any way, would inevitably lead to 
the dismemberment of the Union. The free States unquestionably 
would not endure it. Even were she to get Cuba, America would 
get it under implied pledges, destructive of its value as a place of 
production. 

But while, for the above reasons, I neither think it likely Ame- 
rica will buy Cuba, nor have the same horror that some express at 
the idea of her taking it, I also differ from those who think that 
the possession of Cuba by the United States would strengthen the 
hands of the supporters of the slave system in America itself, and 
procrastinate or prevent the settlement of that question — the great 
national question of the American continent. If it did, the pos- 
session woidd be to America herself a curse instead of a blessing. 
But my conviction is, that it would just leave the slave question 



118 CUBAN STATISTICS. 

where it is ; wliile, at the same time, it would effectually put an end 
to the traffic in slaves — at least in so far as Cuba was concerned — 
and thereby prevent and put an end to much of the injurious com- 
petition to which the produce of our own colonists (which is suppled 
by means of free labour) is exposed, by the nefarious conduct of 
the Spanish colonist in supplying himself with the cheapest of all 
labour, and that by means of the violation of the treaties made by 
his country with (>reat Britain. That slave labour — at least when 
there is a mart out of which the ravages made by excessive toil 
may be supplied — is much cheaper than free labour, is now an as- 
certained fact — ascertained in the best of all ways — by actual expe- 
rience of the consequences. So long as the Spanish colonist finds 
it cheaper to steal slaves or to buy them, knowing them to have 
been stolen, (which is nearly the same thing,) he will never breed 
them. It is idle to expect that he will. It is quite notorious that 
the slave population of Cuba is almost entirely supported by im- 
portation of slaves from the coast of Africa -, and that the average 
duration of the life of a slave, after he arrives in the island of 
bondage, does not exceed seven or eight years : while it is equally 
well known that his cheap labour has been supplied to the Span- 
ish colonist (at the expense of the British colonist whose produce 
is depreciated by it,) since the year 1820 — and in manifest, open 
outrage and defiance of the treaty made in 1817 between the 
governments of Grreat Britain and of Spain, whereby his Catholic 
Majesty engaged that the slave trade should be abolished through- 
out the entire dominions of Spain, on the 30th of May 1820; and 
that from that period it '^ should not be lawful for any of the sub- 
jects of the crown of Spain to purchase slaves, or to carry on the 
slave trade on the coast of Africa upo7i any pretext or in any man- 
ner whatever." The sixth article of this treaty is as follows ; — 
^^His Catholic Majesty will adopt, in conformity to the spirit of 
this treaty, the measures which are best calculated to give full and 
complete effect to the laudable objects which the high contracting 
parties have in view.'^ How this treaty has been kept the historic 
muse will tell, to the immortal honour of that England which has 
been so long foremost in every work of humanity, and to the eter- 
nal disgrace of Spain : recording, as she must do, the signal, and 
at one time nearly successful efforts of England to suppress the 
traffic, and her expenditure of blood and treasure in her persever- 
ing endeavours so to do ; and the base deceptive conduct of Spain 
in violating her solemn engagement, by permitting above thirty 
thousand Africans, (on a general average,) torn from their homes, 
to be annually imported into Cuba and Porto Rico alone, and 
there sold as slaves. It is not easy for one but lately come from 
visiting such scenes, and from viewing their disastrous effects on 



CUBA— AMERICAN ACQUISITION. 119 

the condition of the honest, upright, and intelligent British planter 
in our own colonial possessions in the West Indies, to write with 
temper of such matters. And again, I submit it to the public of 
my native country, that were Spain's debt to England, and for re- 
payment of which Cuba may be considered as part of the security, 
duly provided for and secured, there is little or no interest which 
could or should prevent England from viewing the occupation of 
Cuba by our brethren of the United States of America with feel- 
ings of complacency. For the honour of America herself, such 
occupation, if it is to be gone about, should be gone about only on 
some justifying cause, or by a legitimate transaction of sale ; and 
any gross violation of justice or the law of nations in the matter 
might justify or require the intervention of England, or the other 
powers of Europe in alliance with Spain, to forbid the bans be- 
tween the United States and Cuba. But so far as interest is con- 
cerned, and apart from the question that Cuba forms part of the 
security for Spain's debt to G-reat Britain, interest to prevent 
American annexation England has none. I am aware that other 
writers have expressed themselves differently, but I cannot see the 
grounds of their opinions ; and I know that there are in England 
persons who entertain an unworthy jealousy towards America, just 
as there are in the United States a great number of illiterate pre- 
judiced persons, chiefly composed of renegade sons of Great Bri- 
tain herself, who entertain unworthy and jealous feelings towards 
England. But such parties should be excluded from the consider- 
ation of the good, the true, and the well-informed, on both sides 
of the Atlantic ; and while I have long known that the body of 
intelligent men in G-reat Britain look with extreme interest on the 
rapid advancement in knowledge, in art, and in science, of the 
young republic of America — remembering the source whence they 
sprang, and feeling anything but regret that, actuated by the feel- 
ings which animated their sires, they effectually resisted the 
tyranny of the government of the mother country — I also know 
that there are a vast number of intelligent, enlightened Ameri- 
cans, who look with friendly feelings towards England, and regard 
with pride and pleasure, not only their descent from her, and their 
common origin with her, but also the many matchless institutions 
which England possesses, and her noble efforts in the great cause 
of humanity. An American friend of my qwn, an officer of the 
American navy, whom I met with when at St. Kitt's and again at 
Santa Cruz, expressed the same feeling strongly to me in conver- 
sation when he said, " You are going to my country, sir ; and, 
when travelling, you may hear much nonsense talked of England 
and America, and their feelings and position as regards each other; 
but, take my word for it;^ if America would ever like to see the 



120 CUBA— AMERICAN ACQUISITION. 

Old Country embroiled in a war with all the rest of Europe, it 
would only be because it would afford her an opportunity of step- 
ping in to her relief, and fighting upon England's side/' On an- 
other occasion, an intelligent Bostonian remarked to me at Niagara, 
that certainly the States were more jealous of insult from England 
than from any other country in the world. I asked why, assuring 
him that no intelligent man in England reciprocated this feeling ; 
and his candid answer was, ^^ Because, I suspect, we respect Great 
Britain more than we do any other country, and next to our- 
selves/' Sincerely do I trust that my naval friend will never 
have the opportunity of showing his or his country's affection for 
Great Britain in the manner he so characteristically indicated. 
But I think there is much truth in the Bostonian' s courteous ex- 
planation ; and I deem it simply an act of justice, and of grati- 
tude for the many kindnesses I received when in the United States 
of America, to record whatever fact is likely to tend to promote 
friendly relations between two countries which stand almost in the 
relationship of parent and child. And most sincerely honest am 
I in stating it to be a conviction formed, even after travelling 
through the length and breadth of the United States, that there is 
among the intelligence of America a much kindlier feeling towards 
Great Britain than is generally believed in this country. 

Even if America gets Cuba, the possession may not be very 
valuable to herself (whatever it is under the present system to 
Spain ;) but her doing so will, at all events, put an end to the slave 
trade, in so far at least as the importation of slaves into Cuba is 
concerned. And who doubts but that the system of slavery itself 
runs a chance of much more speedy abolishment at the hands of free 
and enlightened America, than at the hands of bigoted and enslaved 
Spain ? Even the Southern planter, who most dreads emancipation — 
even the champion of that party which most opposed emancipation — 
even Colonel Hayne himself, who has in Congress most loudly, and 
I confess I think with some justice, complained against, the conduct 
of the apostles of the Emancipationist party, who — 

" Fire in each eye, and paper in each hand 
Declaim and preach throughout the land," 

scattering firebrands among a people ready to be excited to vio- 
lence — even parties such as these carry their arguments against 
emancipation no farther than this, that the proper time for it has 
not yet come. None of them, that I ever heard, say that the time 
is never to come. All they contend for is delay to prepare the 
country, the institutions, and the people for the change ; and that in 
some sort of way it should be a gradual one In short, all parties in 
England and America seem to agree in this, that slavery as a system 



CUBAN LADIES. 121 

has received its death-WoW; although it is not yet extinct in the 
United States; and confident do I feel, from personally witnessing 
the feeling, both of the northern and southern States ; hearing in- 
fluential senators and others talk of it, and reading the local papers 
on both sides when on the spot, that a distinct, emphatic denial of 
this truth, on the part of the South, would lead to the mooting of 
the question of a ^^ Repeal of the American Union/' 

But to return to Cuba, and to the scenes of this unique town of 
Havanna, with its narrow streets, and gay promenades, drives, and 
inhabitants. 

The Plaza de Armas is a public square near the quays, in which 
is situated the town mansion of the Captain-general or Governor of 
the island. Though not large, it is very pretty and effective, being 
planted with trees, paved in the centre and towards the outside with 
broad flags, and surrounded with benches. Nearly every evening, 
and especially on Sunday evenings and holidays, and other days of 
special commemoration, there is a large concourse of the inhabitants 
assembled here, to listen to the magnificent music which is poured 
forth by the military bands, which attend for the purpose in front 
of the Captain-generars house. During my stay, there happened 
the anniversary of the birthday of the Queen-mother of Spain, and 
the public gaieties and rejoicings were on a scale of commemorative 
splendour proportionate to the importance of the event, or the 
Spaniard's notion of it. I therefore not only saw the Plaza de 
Armas, and also the Paseo Isabella Secunda, and other places of 
public resort, in their usual, but likewise in their holiday attire; 
and the scene was certainly a very gay and brilliant one. In the 
forenoon there was a levee at the house of the Captain-general, in 
which uniforms of scarlet, green, purple, and nearly every shade of 
colour, enriched with as much gold and silver as could be stuck 
upon them, contended for the mastery. I confess, however, that it 
struck me that the uniforms were much more gorgeous than tasteful, 
and that some of the grandees who figured in them looked much 
more like " flunkies'' than senators or general ofl&cers. Add to this 
the unusual number of men of small stature, and that (as not unfre- 
quently happens) the most insignificant in point of size were gene- 
rally the most bedizened with uniform and orders, and the reader 
will see that the drawing-room of the Grovernor-general of Cuba did 
not impress me with very high notions either of Spanish stature or 
Spanish taste. But the remark only applies to the lordly portion of 
Cuban creation. It were the grossest injustice to apply it to the 
ladies. Indeed, it is only the simple truth to say that I was wholly 
unprepared for the beautiful forms and noble countenances of the 
Cuban ladies. For dark eyes, liquid in their lustrous light, and 
those long eyelashes which give so soft a radiance to the glance of a 

11 



122 HOUSES OF HAVANNA. 

fair Italienne, and for raven tresses, I was somewliat prepared ; but 
certainly not for the full forms and handsome countenances these 
Creole ladies of Cuba so generally display. No doubt they want 
that freshness of complexion to be found in more northern climes ; 
but they have full figures, well-developed busts, noble countenances, 
and eyes of the most brilliant softness. Indeed there is about the 
ladies of Cuba an appearance of health which is somewhat at vari- 
ance with the ascertained fact that they seldom, if ever, take any 
amount or degree of exercise, farther than a drive to the Paseo or to 
the shops and stores, or cafes, (where they are served, sitting in their 
carriages,) in the indispensable volante. Yet, with all this indo- 
lence — with us so certain an inducer of bad health — the ladies of 
Cuba have a breadth of shoulder and a fullness of bust which rival 
even those of the Norman beauty of England, and which the travel- 
ler will look for in vain among the fairy forms to be seen in the 
"United States of America. In part explanation of this acknow- 
ledged fact, I have heard or read a reference made to the open 
-nature of the houses in Havanna, and to the fact that thus the in- 
habitants may be said to live almost always in the open air — or at 
least to have always a free circulation of air around them; and I am 
satisfied there is much in this. Indeed, were it not for this, living 
in Havanna would scarcely be endurable. It would be rendered in- 
supportable by the combined influence of the heat and of the odours. 
The streets are narrow, particularly those within the walls. Nor is 
the town in any degree entitled to a character for cleanliness ; so 
that the olfactory nerves are often, as you go along the streets, 
offended with odours of the most villainous character, of which the 
smell of garlic seems always to form a part. When to this you add 
the occasional smells of tobacco, dried fish, rancid butter, damp bales, 
and the exhalations from the moist, and not particularly clean, 
skins of the negro slaves, and remember that the whole is to be 
encountered with the thermometer standing, in the shade, at or 
about 90 or 100° of Fahrenheit, it will be admitted that a free cir- 
culation of air is most desirable. And admirably are the Havanna 
houses adapted for receiving that free circulation. The ceilings are 
in general extremely lofty. The windows are also wide, and so high 
that they extend from the ceiling to the floor; and, being unglazed, 
and only closed by blinds which do not exclude the air, there is at 
all times a free circulation, without which the climate would be ab- 
solutely insupportable. These blinds are but seldom drawn, even 
in the evening ; and it has a singular effect to a European or Ameri- 
can eye, to observe that, as you walk along the narrow trottoirs of 
the narrow streets, you occasionally brush clothes with the hand- 
somely dressed signoras and signers, as they lounge at their evening 
parties, or family reunions, leaning against the iron bars which run 



COSTUME, ETC., IN HAVANNA. 123 

from the top to the bottom of their lofty windows, dividing them 
from the street. The same circumstance — the openness of the win- 
dows, and the unfrequency of drawn blinds — enables, nay almost 
compels the passenger, as he walks along the street, to see the do- 
mestic operations and attitudes of the persons (generally the smaller 
class of shop and storekeepers) who occupy the houses fronting the 
narrower streets. But it is only fair to add that the privilege is one 
which is seldom abused, and one an abuse of which would meet with 
an immediate and indignant check, by the offender being at once 
given into charge for punishment. During the time I was in Cuba, 
I only saw one tipsy man, and he was either an Englishman or an 
American; and on no occasion did I hear or see any quarrel on the 
street, arising from the ladies or other persons at the windows being 
addressed by the passers-by who rubbed clothes with them, or from 
any other cause. 

It is also a simple act of justice to pay a tribute to the manner — 
the excellent, tasteful, and cleanly manner — in which both the ladies 
and the gentlemen of Havanna dress themselves. In the manner in 
which they dress their children, they not unfrequeetly carry this to 
a ludicrous length. At the Tacon theatre, and when driving on the 
Paseo, I have ofttimes seen a couple, composed evidently of father 
and son, the latter an urchin of four, five, or six years of age, and 
both dressed precisely alike, even to the jewelled cane, the gold 
watch, the diamond ring. This surely is " ridiculous excess/' But, 
as a general, rule, the Cubans dress tastefully and well, both men and 
women. It seemed to me that the male part of the community had 
a great preference for black coats, with white waistcoats and continua- 
tions ; and, if the coat be light in texture, this is a dress most admirably 
adapted for the climate. These Cuban gentlemen do also, as it ap- 
peared to me, endeavour to eschew hair on the sides of the cheek, 
and to promote its production on every other part of the face — a 
habit, I certainly think, filthy and unbecoming : but de gustihus nil 
est disputandum. The English traveller in these regions will find 
no persons who excel his own countrymen in extraordinary attempts 
at the growth of hair on the human face divine. 

The ladies, save when occasions of a religious ceremony or family 
observance compel the use of black, do unquestionably prefer white 
dresses — that most efiective of all dress for the young and fair, a 
white muslin dress. In these flowing muslins, and without bonnets 
or other head-dress, to hide the magnificent hair which nature has 
given them, they come out to the afternoon drive in the Paseo, or to 
the evening lounge on the Plaza de Armas ; and, gracefully reclin- 
ing, in easy indolence, in their volantes, which form a cordon around 
the whole square, they converse or flirt with their numerous beaus 
during the intervals between the music — the ample folds of their 



124 HAV ANNA— THE DOMINICA. 

dresses flowing over on eacli side of the steps of the carriage, but 
clear of contamination from the mud on the wheels, from the circum- 
stance of the latter being placed so far back, in the manner before 
explained, when describing the vehicle. In short, I recollect of no 
instance in which I have seen anything of the kind more beautiful 
than a well-appointed Cuba volante, with two or three fair Creole 
ladies of Cuba sitting on it, their heads uncovered, and their white 
dresses flowing in graceful folds around them. Inside the volantes 
at the Plaza de Armas, there are rows of forms and chairs placed for 
those who prefer to sit ; and within the whole is a place for prome- 
nading, the bands (for there are generally two, if not three,) being 
stationed around the statue in the centre. The square is lit with gas 
when occasion requires; and a more agreeable place for an evening 
promenade it were difficult to imagine. 

The Paseo Isabel, which lies between the walls of Havanna and 
the streets of the new town, is another place of public resort, being 
the chief place to which the citizens repair with their volantes, to 
drive up and down on festival occasions — enjoying, at the same time, 
the luxury of seeing and of being seen, and the exquisite music dis- 
coursed by the military bands provided by the Government for the 
amusement of the people. I witnessed the scene on the occasion be- 
fore mentioned — namely, on the anniversary of the birthday of the 
Queen-mother Christina — as well as at other times ; and a very gay, 
cheerful scene it is. If I were to venture a conjecture as to the 
number of volantes I saw, at one time, driving up and down the 
Paseo, I fear I would scarcely be credited. It seemed as if all Ha- 
vanna had turned out in honour of the occasion. 

The hour of drive in the Paseo is generally early in the afternoon, 
about five o'clock ; that of the promenade in the Plaza de Armas, 
considerably later — about eight o'clock. Indeed, it seemed to me 
that the fair Cubans just loitered at the one till it was time to go to 
the other ; and many a voluptuous form, whom I had seen sitting in 
her volante as it drove along the Paseo, did I afterwards recognise 
reclining, with easy elegance, in the same vehicle at the Plaza. 

On leaving the Plaza de Armas, the places of resort are the Thea- 
tre Tacon, (in which there is, generally, an operatic company of con- 
siderable merit,) when it is open ; or the splendid cafes, of which 
there are, at least, two very large ones in the immediate vicinity of 
the Plaza. I can only speak from personal experience of one of 
these cafes — that called the Dominica — than which there is not a 
better appointed establishment of the kind in any part of the world. 
Indeed, all the English and Americans, as well as Cubans, I met 
with in Havanna, were loud in their praises of the Dominica. It 
was made by us our constant place of meeting and of call, whether 
we intended to patronise its tempting delicacies or not ; and it is 



HAVANNA— TACON THEATRE. 125 

simply an act of justice to record the fact, that nothing could exceed 
the attention and civility we received, whatever was the nature or 
purpose of the call. It is a very large establishment, capable of con- 
taining some hundreds of visitors at the same time. In the centre 
of it there is a large, open, paved court, with a fountain in the mid- 
dle, in which court the visitors are also accommodated, being pro- 
tected by a sail overhead, which can be drawn back or across, so as 
to form a roof, as occasion may require or render expedient. 

To describe the variety of articles falling under the generic names 
'^ preserves'^ or " confectionaries," to be seen and tasted at the Domi- 
nica, were a tedious task to any one — an impossible one to such as 
have had their culinary education somewhat neglected, as has been 
my lot — but the flavour of some of them linger on my palate still. 
The spirited proprietor carries on a very large foreign as well as home 
trade j and I was not at all surprised when I was informed of the 
fact, and saw the statement verified, by witnessing the huge boxes of 
pine-apple jelly, guava jelly, preserved fruits of every description, 
and liquors of every possible name and colour, which came from " La 
Dominica^' to the steamship Severn — Captain Vincent commander— 
to be conveyed to different parts of the world, to minister to the 
gratification of the rising generation and others. In short, the pro- 
prietor of the Dominica has a large home and foreign business ; and 
he deserves to have it, were it only for his civility to strangers, and 
for the gallantry with which his numerous helps attend to the com- 
mands of the fair signorittas as they stop for refreshment of some 
kind, without alighting from the volante, after they leave the Plaza 
de Armas. 

The Tacon theatre mentioned above is a very splendid building, 
very spacious — being indeed one of the largest in the world. When 
I first went to Havana, it was occupied as a place for the exhibi- 
tion of feats of legerdemain and " digital dexterity,^' by a gentle- 
man rejoicing in the somewhat mixed name of Signor McAllister, 
and his lady, who were delighting the Cubans with their magical 
performances. The surname smacked strongly of Scotland; and 
the answer I received, on inquiring of a Scotch gentleman, resi- 
dent in the island, was, that he knew Mr. McAllister, and that he 
was a native of the land of mountain and of flood, having been 
born in the manufacturing village of Kirkintilloch, in the west of 
Scotland. 

Having no great taste for such exhibitions, and having already 
seen several in my time — the court-performing " Wizard of the 
North'^ inclusive — it was not my countryman, or his " neuva y 
variada funcion,^' that attracted me to the Cuban theatre; although 
it is but fair to add, that never had I before seen such perform- 
ances more skilfully executed than they were por los esposes M' Al- 
ii* 



126 HAVANNA— CAMPO SANTO. 

lister y who contrived to keep a large, gay, and varied audience in 
a state of interested delight for a period, I should suppose — for I 
left ere it was finished — of about three hours. 

My object, however, was to see the house, about the beauty of 
which I had previously heard much — and that much was certainly 
justified by the- fact. It is indeed a superb, tasteful house, painted 
white, with gilded mouldings. There is a pit capable of contain- 
ing fully a thousand people, each person being accommodated with 
a seat or stall separate from the rest, and these seats or stalls being 
numbered. Of the boxes there are three tiers or rows, and of the 
galleries there are two. The open formation of the boxes, with 
their movable jalousies behind, and, generally, the formation of 
the house, is not only beautiful and effective, but admirably adapted 
to promote coolness — which is, of course, the main object in a 
climate where the thermometer is rarely below ninety in the shade. 

I visited the Tacon Theatre also in the forenoon, to correct any 
too favorable ideas 1 might have formed from having seen it when 
lit up by the splendid gas-lights which illume and adorn it, and 
graced by the numerous fairy forms, and brilliant or languishing 
eyes of the ladies who occupied the boxes. But day-light confirmed 
my opinion of its fine proportions ; and, from having tried my own 
voice in it, and heard others speak in it, I would say, that it is as 
well adapted for speaking in as it is for seeing and for hearing. 
This theatre is chiefly used for operatic purposes ; and ere I left 
the island, Madame Anna Bishop, with Bochsa and Yaltalli, had 
arrived, and were gratifying the Cubans with their musical powers. 

The Cuba Beneficencia I did not inspect, and the only thing con- 
nected with the exterior of it was a scene which is to be seen in 
Cuba in front of almost every place which is at all of a public 
character — and that is, soldiers on guard. Soldiers, soldiers, in 
every direction. On the Paseo, at the promenade, guarding the 
theatre, at the cemetery, and even in front of the hospitals. The 
number of troops in Cuba must be very great for the size of the 
island. There were not, at the time in question, less than twelve 
thousand in the town of Havanna alone. 

A little apart from the city, and after passing through that gate 
in the town wall which is nearest the sea, you come to the public 
cemetery of Havanna, called the Campo Santo — a place of no 
beauty, but interesting as the spot which receives at last, and in 
rapid succession, the bodies of rich and poor in this town of bus- 
tling trade, after the lease of life held by each comes to an end. 
This graveyard is surrounded by a very thick wall, with an interior 
brick-work, in which are niches or openings in tiers, one above 
another, in numerous succession. These niches or recesses are 
deep, and look like large pigeon-holes ; and they form the tombs 



HAVANNA— VALLA DE GALLOS. 127 

of the richer inhabitants of Havanna, the coffin being thrust into 
the niche, and the end built up or covered by a tablet, to remain 
so till it is opened for the next member of the family for whom 
death calls. In the yard within the walls, the poor are thrust, 
generally without coffins, into shallow graves — the process of 
decomposition being hastened by the use of quick-lime. If the 
visit is paid in the cool of the evening, the period of the day at 
which funerals usually take place, the visitor will have an oppor- 
tunity of judging for himself of the manner in which funerals are 
conducted in Cuba, as scarcely an evening passes without numerous 
interments taking place. There is no funeral service at the grave, 
and ofttimes the corpse is brought for burial dressed in the clothes 
of every-day life. It was, on the whole, a sickening sight ; and 
the vicinity of a lunatic establishment, at the windows of which 
some of the inmates were seen, helped to add to its disheartening 
effect. 

It were to omit one of the pleasantest of Cuban reminiscences, 
not to mention the Banos Publicos, or public bathing-houses, to be 
found in and about Havanna. There are numerous establishments 
in the town, where hot and cold fresh-water baths may be had at a 
cost of from a quarter of a dollar to half a dollar; and it is only 
in a climate like Cuba that the luxury of such establishments is 
fully felt. But the baths worthy of special mention are the sea- 
baths along the coast, several of which you pass on the way to the 
Campo Santo. The coast of Cuba is formed or composed of a kind 
of honey-comb rock, and this is cut or hollowed out into baths, in 
lengths of about twenty feet square, or thereby, and of a depth 
varying from three to six, or even eight feet — the outer wall, be- 
tween the bath and the sea, being perforated with holes, which 
admit the free flow of the water in and out, while they do not per- 
mit of the ingress of anything that can injure or annoy. In none 
of the other islands of the West Indian Archipelago are there sea- 
baths at all to compare with those of Havanna ; and they only who 
have felt the luxury of a bath in sea water in the tropics, and 
know the danger of swimming in the open sea among these islands, 
can appreciate fully the advantage the Cubans enjoy in having 
such places for performing their ablutions. There are, of course, 
separate baths for the females ; and there are larger baths into 
which several persons may go, while the visitor, who prefers it, can 
have one entirely to himself or herself. These baths are covered 
in by a wooden erection, and the charge for the bath and the use of 
towels is generally a peseta for the bath, and a real for the towels 
— about thirty cents, or Is. Sd. 

The Valla de Gallos, or public cockpits of Havanna, cannot be 
excluded from its characteristics and sights. They are situated in a 



128 HOUSES ETC., IN HAVANNA. 

large enclosure outside the walls, and are composed of two amphi- 
theatres, having benches round the sides, and a roof overhead with a 
circular area in the middle. These places are generally crowded, and 
the shouting of ^^ Mata, mata,^^ (kill? ^ill?) ^^^ other sounds, baffles 
description ; while the quantity of money that changes hands, as each 
combat is brought to a conclusion by the one or other of the com- 
batants in this inhuman^ and brutalising sport being killed or dis- 
abled, shows how deeply the practice and spirit of gambling gene- 
rally have worked themselves into the national character. A cock- 
pit, and a game at Monte, (which is a chance game at cards,) can, I 
believe, easily be seen in any part of Cuba, as well as in most parts 
either of Spain or of any of her colonies. 

The stranger in Havanna is at once struck with the want of trees, 
particularly in the promenades. This in a tropical climate, is un- 
questionably a great want. The trees in the Paseo are young, scarce- 
ly more than shrubs ; and throughout the whole town and suburbs 
there is the same want of shade from trees — a fact which is mainly 
to be attributed to the effects of a hurricane which visited the island 
in 1844, and produced much suffering and distress. 

Within the walls, the streets of Havanna are both narrow and 
crooked — so narrow, that in some streets two Yolantes can scarce 
pass each other. Outside the walls they are wider ; and both " intra" 
and '^ extra muros" the buildings are large, having in general a 
courtyard in the centre, which is ofttimes paved with marble, around 
which courtyard are the entrances to the rooms, and the whole has 
altogether a very Moorish aspect. In the hotels or bording-houses, 
such as Madame d^Almy's or Miss Chambers's — both of which are 
- excellent, well-conducted establishments, where everything may be 
had at public tables at a charge of about two dollars per day — the 
public rooms are good, and (which is the thing chiefly wanted in 
such a climate) airy and spacious, as well as tolerably well furnished. 
But the bedrooms are generally the worst rooms in the house ; and 
altogether there is a great want of those domestic conveniences com- 
prehended under the truly English term " comfort." In some of 
the private houses I had the pleasure of visiting, the rooms — the 
public ones especially — are very handsome; and I enjoyed the hos- 
pitalities of one friend, who, while his public rooms were good, had 
judiciously turned the two best rooms of his mansion into his own 
bedroom, and a nursery for his children ; but he was an Englishman, 
at least a Scotchman. Rents in Havanna are very high, and alto- 
gether it is a very dear place to live in. The coins in general use 
are Spanish and Mexican dollars, half and quarter dollars, pesetas, 
or twenty-cent pieces, reals de plata, about the eighth of a dollar, 
and doubloons, of which there are two kinds — the one doubloon be- 
ing Mexican, Columbian, or of some other South American state, 



TREATMENT OF SLAVES. 129 

and being of the value of £3. 6s. Sd., and a legal tender for sixteen 
dollars; and the other, the old Spanish doubloon, or onza d'oro, 
value about £3. 10s. lOd., and a legal tender for seventeen silver 
dollars. Of the silver dollars, the Spanish pillar dollar is preferred. 

When on the subject of coins, I would strongly recommend the 
traveller in these parts, before starting on his voyage, or as soon 
thereafter as possible, to possess himself of a book or pamphlet con- 
taining drawings of most coins in use, with a statement of their 
relative worth and value. Such pamphlets are published in Ameri- 
ca, by Taylor and others. I am not aware whether there are any 
works of a similar nature published in England ; but, at all events, 
the American publication can easily be procured in this country, 
from any bookseller who deals in transatlantic publications. These 
pamphlets are issued in the States once a-month, and are there of 
especial use, as they contain descriptions of the numerous notes 
(paper money) of inferior value, or of no value at all, which are 
there in constant circulation, and with which the designing and dis- 
honest often cheat the unwary traveller. They also give drawings 
and descriptions of most coins^ with the relative value of each in 
cents. 

Before leaving Cuba, I did my utmost to get as accurate informa- 
tion as possible, as to the general condition of the slave population ; 
but the details differed so much, that it was next to impossible to 
lay down any statement of general application. The system is so 
very a despotism, and masters differ so widely, that what is true of 
one is untrue of another, and the shades of difference in the treat- 
ment of their slaves are just as numerous as the men. A few par- 
ticulars, however, I ascertained as facts beyond dispute. 

In the first place, the domestic slaves, those employed in the per- 
formance of menial offices in the families of their owners, are in 
general very well treated. Nor are they indiscriminately selected 
from the general body. The office is as it were hereditary ; the chil- 
dren, if there are any, being brought up to the performance of 
domestic work as the parents die. It is plain that ties will thus be 
formed between the master and mistress, and their families, and their 
domestic servants, which will go far to soften the hardships of slavery, 
and to secure the comparative good treatment of the slaves. So it 
is in Cuba. The best-informed parties in Havanna assured me, and 
my own observation led me to the same conclusion, that, on the 
whole, the household slaves were a favoured race compared with their 
fellows in the field, and that instances in which domestics were ill 
treated were the exceptions, and not the rule. 

Among the slaves, and particularly among the domestic slaves, it 
occasionally happens that a slave works out his or her freedom, under 
the operation of a law known as giving rise to what is called the 



130 TREATMENT OF SLAVES. 

Ouartado system. By this system a slave can purchase his freedom 
if so inclined. If he has been purchased by his master, the price 
so paid is held also as the price which he must pay for his liberation ; 
while, if he has been born in slavery to his master, he is entitled by 
law to have a price put upon himself by valuation, at which price he 
has the right to redeem himself from bondage. After this valuation, 
on paying one-sixth of the price, the slave becomes master of his 
own time, becomes free, as it were, for one day in the week ; another 
sixth, two days, and so on ; so that the capacity for acquiring free- 
dom, as well as the desire so to do — like VirgiFs impersonation of 
fame — vires acquirit eundo. If I remember aright, some such plan 
was once proposed by the British statesman Canning, for the gradual 
emancipation of the slaves in the British colonial possessions. When 
once adventured on, and to some length successfully prosecuted, the 
path to freedom by the Cuartado system is not a difficult one. But 
to commence, — hie labor hoc opus est : few even of the strongest 
and best-behaved can find the means of beginning to work out their 
liberty, and hence it is that there are but few Cuartados to be found 
in Cuba. But there are a few, and it is generally conceded — indeed, 
it may be readily supposed — that persons who have so adventured on 
a course of welldoing for the purchase of the dearest earthly right, 
will make the best and most faithful domestic servants, and are ac- 
cordingly generally selected for that purpose. 

The field-labourers are however, as a body, in a very different situa- 
tion. As a general rule, their labour is very severe, and their 
treatment very harsh — during the process of sugar-making, especially 
so. When once the grinding or pressing the cane — the first step in 
sugar-making — is begun, it proceeds day and night, with the excep** 
tion of Sundays and other holidays, (and ofttimes without even these 
exceptions,) till the whole is completed. The slaves work in gangs, 
and for six hours or so at a time — being kept closely at their work 
by the fear of the lash, and by its frequent application. In some 
estates there are no women — in others there are very few; and the 
men are, during the hours devoted to sleep, penned up in barracoons 
like so many cattle. No doubt the treatment varies on different 
estates. On some it is much more humane than on others, but as a 
general rule it is the very reverse of humane ; and I could not, al- 
though I diligently inquired, hear of any estate on which the number 
of labourers was kept up by births on the estate itself. Indeed, the 
idea of making the slave population supply itself is the last thing 
that seems to enter a Cuban's mind ; and it will be so long as, by 
violating the contract made with, and paid for by England in 1817, 
and by encouraging the disgusting slave trade, he can buy 7nuch 
cheaper than he can breed. To breed slaves is bad enough, but it 
is an evil unquestionably second to the stealing and selling of them j 



TREATMENT OF SLAVES. 131 

and tbus it is, it should be remembered, that to end slavery we must 
begin at the beginning : we must first put an end to the slave traffic. 
That is unquestionably the natural way. 

Indeed, as to the condition and treatment of agricultural slaves in 
the island of Cuba, these two well-ascertained facts speak volumes, 
and render further inquiry almost unnecessary. In the first place, 
the Negro population is far, very far from supporting itself. The 
number of victims annually robbed from Africa and taken as slaves 
to Cuba, Porto Kico, and Brazil, are estimated at seventy-eight thou- 
sand. Of these the Spanish colonies get one-half. But whatever 
number may be landed at Porto Bico in the first instance, few are 
allowed to remain there, for the reason already pointed out when 
writing of the labouring population of that productive island. It is 
therefore within the truth to estimate the numbers annually taken to 
Cuba at thirty thousand j and that this amount of importation is 
required to make good the ravages by death, is proved by the fact, 
that whenever, through the vigilance of British cruisers or otherwise, 
there has been a failure in the number imported, the price has im- 
mediately and rapidly risen. It is a fact well known and universally 
admitted in Havanna, that when, in the spring or summer of 1847, 
intelligence reached Cuba that the British Grovernment had actually 
passed the Sugar Duties Bill of 1846, (admitting slave-grown sugar 
into our markets,) the price of slaves immediately rose greatly ; and 
such was the demand occasioned by the increase of sugar cultivation 
in the island, that slaves formerly considered so old, infirm, and 
superannuated, as to be exempted from working were again put to 
work ; and some were drafted from the lighter work of the caffetal, 
or coffee plantations, on to the heavier labour of the sugar estates : 
and these consequences arose solely from the fact that the slavers 
were unable to supply the demand with sufficient rapidity, being 
prevented by the vigilance of the British and French cruising 
squadrons. 

In the second place, it is now but too well known that the 
average life of a slave, after he reaches Cuba, does not exceed 
seven or eight years. This acknowledged fact requires no com- 
ment. It contains in itself at once the evidence and the explana- 
tion of the inhuman treatment which these unfortunates receive at 
the hands of their oppressors. 

There are surely none, who can appreciate the horrors of such a 
a state of things, who would not gladly aid in and towards their 
suppression. That the issue is rapidly approaching seems very 
evident ; but how it is to be brought about is not so plain. If to 
any I may seem to contemplate too liberally the possibility of the 
American Bepublic acquiring Cuba by purchase or otherwise, it is 
possible that my feelings thereto are somewhat influenced by the 



132 BRITISH WEST INDIAN COLONIES. 

conviction tliat sucli acquisition of the isle of Cuba would accele- 
rate, instead of (as some think) retarding the glorious day of the 
abolition, not only of the slave trade, but of slavery, even in the 
American Union itself. Apart however from this, and even should 
G-reat Britain and France be left alone, as they may be said to 
have hitherto been, in their holy crusade against the system of 
slavery ; and apart even from the vexed question of whether the 
African squadron is either a judicious or an efficient weapon for 
slave trade suppression, England and France have other, more 
powerful, and more universally applicable means at their com- 
mand, for the accomplishment of their beneficent designs towards 
the swarthy sons of Africa. It will form part of the object of the 
next chapter to explain what these means are, and how they should 
be employed. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

*' Great was the laoon, my country, when you gave 
To man his birthright, freedom to the slave." 

The concluding remarks of the last chapter have brought me to 
the date at which I left the West Indian Archipelago — never, in 
all probability, to return thereto. Thereafter crossing the Grulf of 
Mexico from Havanna to Mobile, I found myself for the first time, 
and with highly raised hopes, on the great continent of America. 

But, before finally leaving the subject of the British colonial 
possessions in the West Indies, I am irresistibly impelled, nay, I 
feel it almost a duty, to record, in as few words as I can, the views 
and impressions, formed upon the scene, as to the claims, position 
and future prospects of these noble colonies of England. No 
doubt the subject is nearly threadbare. So much has been said 
and written upon it already, that it were perhaps scarcely to be 
hoped that any new fact should be here stated, any new view eli- 
cited, or the general subject discussed with greater clearness and 
force of argument than have been already brought to bear upon it 
by other and by abler writers. Still I am satisfied that much igno- 
rance and misconception yet prevails, even regarding the facts on 
which the question at issue between England and her West In- 
dian colonies depends ; and perchance these remarks upon it may 
fall into hands which have not yet had access to other more ex- 
tended and elaborate treatises or statements, and may induce some, 
who would not otherwise have done so, to investigate the matter 
for themselves. ^ At all events, I have resolved to put in writing 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 133 

my views of the present unfortunate^ depressed state and condition 
of West Indian affairs, and of tlie remedies that might be applied 
to them ; and if the subject seems too old, or too irksome, for the 
perusal of any who have gone with me thus far, I can only re- 
spectfully suggest that they turn over a few leaves, and join me 
at the commencement of the next volume. 

The pages on which are inscribed the part that England has 
acted in the suppression of slavery, and in the emancipation of the 
slave, are unquestionably among the brightest pages of her na- 
tional history. They shed a halo round the name of England 
which is imperishable, and beyond the reach of national mutation. 
That 

" Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 
Eeceive our air, that moment they are free," 

had become credited, almost as an axiom, even before the famous 
decision of Lord Mansfield, pronounced in the case of the slave 
Somerset, in June, 1772. Indeed — and this is a fact which is not 
generally known — the same point as that tried and decided in 
Somerset's case, had been brought solemnly before, and fully dis- 
cussed in, the Supreme Court of Scotland, no less than fifteen 
years previously ; and it is nothing less than certain, that a judg- 
ment similar in effect to that pronounced by Lord Mansfield would 
then have been given in Scotland, had the final decision of the 
case not been prevented by the unfortunate death of •» the negro, 
pending the discussion. Under date 4th July 1757, the following 
case is reported in the records of the Court of Session. " Hearing 
in presence — Robert Sheddan against a Negro. A Negro who had 
been bought in Yirginia, and brought to Britain to be taught a 
trade, and who had been baptized in Britain, having claimed his 
liberty against his master, Robert Sheddan, who had put him 
on board a ship to carry him back to Virginia ; the Lords op- 
•pointed counsel for the Negro^ and ordered memorials, and after- 
wards a hearing in presence, upon the respective claims of liberty 
and servitude^ by the master and the negro. But, during the hear- 
ing in presence, the negro died — so the point was not decided." 

But, although the question had thus been previously mooted in 
Scotland, the glory yet remains to the great Mansfield, of having 
pronounced the decision which first promulgated the noble truth 
that England and slavery are incompatible terms — a decision which 
may be said to have roused into active exertion, in 1772, that spirit 
which animated a succession of men, such as Clarkson, Wilberforce, 
Brougham, Jeffrey, and Mackintosh, and of which the Emancipa- 
tion Act of 1834 was only one of the later results. The circum- 
stances of Somerset's case have often been recorded; but they 
deserve to be borne in mind, and they form a fitting introduction to 

12 



134 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

the consideration of what Great Britain has yet to do, if she would 
do justice to all parties in this great cause. 

Somerset the slave had, after his arrival in England, become 
incapacitated for working. It was said that this was through the 
cruel treatment of his master ; but it seems equally probable that it 
was through disease. His condition was made known to Mr. Wil- 
liam Sharpe, then a surgeon in London, by whose philanthropic and 
skilful services the poor slave was healed. His master finding that 
he was so, again claimed his services as a slave ; but, the circum- 
stance coming to the ears of Granville Sharpe (the brother of the 
surgeon who had healed the man,) who had previously buckled on 
his mental armour in this great struggle for the rights of man, he 
brought the case before Lord Mansfield, who, on 22d June 1772, 
pronounced the memorable judgment, -^hich is in these terms : 

"Immemorial usage preserves the memory of positive law, long 
after the traces of the occasion, reason, authority, or time of its 
introduction are lost ; and, in a case so odious as the condition of 
slaves, must be taken strictly. Tracing the subject of natural prin- 
ciples, the claim of slavery never can be supported. The power 
claimed by this return never was in use here. We cannot say the 
cause set forth by this return is allowed or approved of by the laws 
of this kingdom ) and therefore the man must be discharged." 

The spirit of opposition to slavery as a system, being thus awak- 
ened and encouraged — public attention being directed to the matter 
— the cause proceeded and prevailed, gathering strength as it ad- 
vanced, until, after repeated defeats, Mr. Wilberforce, on the 25th 
of March 1807, carried his bill which pronounced the slave trade 
abolished forever, and the stain it had inflicted wiped off from the 
national escutcheon of England. Nor should the fact be overlooked, 
when noticing the subject, that it was in the very same year that 
America abolished the slave traffic, in so far as she was concerned, 
declaring it to be illegal for her subjects to carry it on — Denmark 
having preceded both England and America in this sacred cause. 

But, the slave trade abolished, another evil only second to it still 
remained. Slavery still existed in the British colonial possessions. 
The supply from without was cut ofi", and thereby, no doubt, a great 
boon was conferred on those slaves already within — inasmuch as 
even the most inhuman master had now an inducement to treat his 
slaves with a kindness he had never exhibited to them before — the 
same inducement that the possessor of a horse has to treat him well, 
if he does not know how to replace him should he be lost. But the 
nation was not satisfied. The excitement and agitation proceeded, 
led on by Wilberforce and other well-known names, and, it cannot 
be denied, aided not a little by the well-authenticated cases of cruelty 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 135 

perpetrated on slaves by individual masters in the West Indies/''^ 
until, in the year 1833, the Emancipation Act — which put an end, 
not merely to the traffic in slaves, but to slavery itself, throughout 
the dominions of Great Britain — passed the British Parliament. It 
is a coincidence, in connexion with the passing of this important sta- 
tute, which is worthy of being recorded whenever mention of the 
subject is made, that, on the very night in which the House of Com- 
mons agreed to, and passed, the emancipating clause of the bill, the 
death of Wilberforce took place. It seemed almost as if the spirit of 
this great and good man had lingered in its tenement of clay, until 
it should be privileged to see the triumph of that cause to which his 
life had been devoted, and had then been itself emancipated from the 
sufferings of the flesh. 

Before and at the time the Emancipation Bill was passed, the 
country was literally inundated with treatises and pamphlets, on both 
sides of the question ; and there are some who even now affirm, that 
the bill was carried more by clamour, than in consequence of a gene- 
ral perception of the wisdom, justice, and prudence of the measure. 
Be this, however, as it may, there are few or none who now refuse 
to admit that the time had come when the abolition of slavery could 
not much longer be refused ; and, throughout the length and breadth 
of the West Indies, never did I hear even the most complaining, in- 
dignant, or ruined planter declare either the possibility or the wisdom 
of a return to the enslaved state. 

But let us consider, in a few sentences, the condition in which 
the passing of the Emancipation Act of 1833 placed the British 
colonist in the West Indies. If, to the date of that act, slavery 
had been a legalized thing in the British West Indies, the sin was 
not simply a colonial, it was a national one. England not merely 
permitted, but compelled the possessors of colonial estates to work 
their estates by means of slave labour. They had, indeed, no other 
labour to work them with — but that is not all. In most of the 
colonies, there was a law which required the maintenance of a cer- 
tain proportion between the extent of the estate and the number of 
the slaves The West Indian proprietor must either keep slaves 
or give up his property. Let this not be forgotten. But Eng- 
land, in 1833, said. This shall cease ; in future, you (the colonist) 
must work your estates by free labourers : and in so doing, she 
said that which was as consistent with wisdom, as it certainly was 
with justice and mercy. But the colonist replied, I cannot work 
my estate as cheaply by means of free men as by means of slaves. 

* It were foreign to the object of this sketch to dwell on details ; but the reader 
disposed to doixbt this, or desirous of farther information, may consult the Edin- 
burgh Eevieto, and m particular the details connected -with the trial and conviction 
of Hodge (one of the council of the Virgin Islands) for the murder of his slave in 
1811; and the trial of Huggins, for excessive cruelty to his slaves, &c. 



X36 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

JSTow, what was the answer to this? The fact vjas denied; but, at 
the same time, it so far prevailed that compensation was given. 
Twenty millions sterling were agreed to be given ; and it is cer- 
tainly this twenty millions that blinds most persons in G-reat 
Britain so far as to prevent them from taking even a fair view of 
the present claims and position of the West Indian planter. 
Twenty millions were voted, and it was a handsome sum. There 
is no wish to deny that it was so ; and I certainly am not one of 
those who would disparage this munificent act on England's part 
— an act which places her conduct in bright relief against the con- 
duct of other countries, which have either refused their colonists 
compensation altogether, or have given a mere pittance in seeming 
compliance with the claim. But truth should be heard. What 
was this compensation for ? Why was it fixed at twenty millions ? 
It was given in consideration of the additional expense to be en- 
tailed on the planter from being compelled to hire labourers to 
work his fields and manufactories, instead of cultivating the one 
and carrying on the other by means of slaves — in consideration, 
in short, of the mother country having tied him up to one mode of 
culture, while he previously had an option of two. And it was 
fixed at twenty millions sterling, not because it was for a moment 
supposed that that sum would fairly represent the value of the 
slaves to be liberated, much less of the estates and works on and 
in which they were employed — but because it was, at the time, 
thought, that the injury would only be a temporary one, and that, 
as the planters icoidd alt he on the same footing, the result, in a few 
years, would be to make the profit from working sugar, coffee, and 
cotton estates, by free labour, as great as it had been during the 
time when Britain countenanced slavery. The soundness of this 
view may be maintained from the terms of the Emancipation Act 
itself. In the rubric these words occur, ^^ For compensating the 
persons hitherto entitled to the services of such slaves.^^ In the 
preamble, it is said that a reasonable compensation should be given 
^' to the persons hitherto entitled to the services of the slaves, for 
the loss which they may incur by being deprived of such services.'^ 
And by section twenty-fourth, the twenty millions are granted 
^^ towards compensating the persons hitherto entitled to the services 
of the slaves to be manumitted.'' Indeed, the statistics of the 
matter prove that this was the principle of the calculation. The 
value of the whole slaves in the British West Indian colonies was, 
by the Government commissioners, estimated and taken to be 
forty-three millions sterling ; while the value of the estates, works, 
aud machinery in and on which they were employed, was nearly 
twice that sum — making a formidable total of nearly one hundred 
and twenty-nine millions sterling. It is therefore out of the ques- 



BRITISH WEST INDIKS. 137 

tion to talk of the twenty millions as being voted or intended to 
be given as representing anything more than the amount of sup- 
posed temporary loss the planter might sustain through the change 
in the condition of the labourer, and the consequent change in the 
nature of the relationship subsisting between that labourer and 
himself. Still the sum was a handsome one ; and, if even the dis- 
appointed Wegt Indian will fairly face the subject, he must admit 
that, at the time, and with the information which existed at the 
time, (whereby a glimpse into the probable consequences might 
have been obtained,) it was a munificent act of national justice, or 
at least intended to be so. Indeed, had means been adopted for 
gradually procuring a snffijciency of free labourers — and had the 
measure of emancipation been left to itself and to work out only its 
own effects, unaided and uninjured by subsequent legislation of a dif- 
ferent and of a backward tendency — the amount given would have 
been found to have been a reasonable, if not a fdl, compensation. 
In short, the transaction was this — and no reasonable man, either 
on the one side or the other, will deny that it was so : Britain said 
to her colonists. — ^^ We have both been to blame — I in permitting, 
and even in legalizing slavery in my possessions ; you, in taking 
advantage of that permission, to engage and continue in a traffic 
and trade which violates one of the first rights and principles of 
humanity. But a change of system is an experiment, although a 
just and a necessary one, and it will probably, if not certainly, be 
attended at first with loss. Now you, the colonist, ought to bear 
most of that loss, inasmuch as you have been actually engaged in 
the trade, and you or your predecessors on the estates have reaped 
such profit as has been derived from this objectionable and sinful 
mode of working your estates. Looking therefore to the whole 
matter — tota re perspecta — I will compound my share of the de- 
linquency by giving you the handsome sum of twenty millions 
sterling, besides aiding you to get free labourers for your estates, 
and any further loss arising from the natural effects of the measure 
must be borne by yourselves." Here then lies the whole question, 
and in my humble opinion here lies the strength and justice of the 
claims of the British colonist. For, be it observed, the Emanci- 
pation Act was not an isolated measure ; it formed part of a great 
whole. In 1807 Great Britain had abolished the traffic in slaves 
by her own subjects. In 1817, she had entered into a treaty with 
Spain for the abolition of the slave trade by the subjects of his 
Catholic Majesty, paying the latter £400,000 as the price of his 
assent. In 1826, she had entered into a similar treaty with the 
Emperor of Brazil, whereby the latter renewed, recognized, and 
adopted the treaties that had previously been entered into, and 
were then subsisting between Great Britain and Portugal, for the 

12* 



138 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

entire suppression of the slave trade. And now, in 1833, she de- 
clared her resolution to pay £20,000,000 to her own subjects, for 
the emancipation of the slaves in her own colonial possessions. In 
all this, the spirit which animated the counsels of England, and 
impelled her to these successive acts, was an intense, and seem- 
ingly a growing, permanent dislike to slavery in every shape and 
form, and a resolution to discountenance it in every possible way, 
even though the doing so involved pecuniary sacrifice and consider- 
able loss. Such were undoubtedly the circumstances under which 
the Emancipation Bill — a bill the preamble of which indicated, 
that it was intended to ameliorate the condition of the planter as 
well as of the slave — was carried. No one who remembers the ex- 
citement that prevailed in Great Britain, and the numerous public 
meetings held in almost every city, town, village, hamlet, and in- 
stitution, in every part of the country, to strengthen the hands of 
the Emancipationists, will be disposed to deny that the facts were 
as I have stated them. 

Now, such being the circumstances attending the passing of the 
emancipation statute, were or were not the West Indian planters en- 
titled to regard it as part of their compensation or protection against 
loss, that they would never have, in the home market at least, to 
compete with produce grown and manufactured by slaves ? I con- 
fess I think they were. I am aware that there are those who deny 
this, maintaining that, as no Government is entitled to bind its suc- 
cessor, so no party treating with a Government is entitled to rely on 
its successor following out the same line of policy. But this is surely 
a very latitudinarian view of state morality. Suppose that the Go- 
vernment of the day had only paid one-fourth or one-half of the 
compensation-money, and that the Government that succeeded it, 
while it adhered to the statute as a law, yet refused to make payment 
of the remainder of the sum due, — would any one have attempted to 
justify such a course ? And if not, what is the difference between 
refusing a part of the promised money compensation, and a part of 
the implied 'protective compensation ? Moreover, whatever view the 
greatest advocate for the principle that one Government cannot bind 
a succeeding one, may take of this matter, he will not surely deny 
that it is a most extraordinary position of matters, when we see a 
Government professing to approve of the general policy of their pre- 
decessors in office, and yet going back from that same policy and act- 
ing in opposition to it in part. Nothing surely could be further from 
the thought of the most desponding West Indian planter than the 
idea that, while England voted so large a sum in 1833 towards put- 
ting an end to slavery in her own colonies, she would, in 1846, pass 
an act which would have the direct effect of encouraging and increas- 
ing slavery in the possessions of other countries. And yet that such 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 139 

was the tendency, and that such has been the effect of the act of 
1846, I will immediately show by the most conclusive of all 
evidence. 

Before, however, leaving the subject of the twenty millions, and 
although the circumstance does not enter into the general argument, 
it may, for the sake of accuracy, and to prevent cavil, be proper to 
notice the fact, that, while the twenty millions were voted, the whole 
of that sum was not paid. The sum actually awarded was £18,669,- 
401 10s. Id. ; while, even of this last-mentioned sum, the West 
Indian colonists only received £16,461,000. These facts do not 
enter into the principle of my argument, although they tend to show 
still further that full compensation never was contemplated. But 
as there is a very general tendency to throw this twenty millions in 
the teeth of our West Indian friends, and many still believe that sum 
to have been actually paid, it is but right that the misconception 
should be removed by a statement of the truth. The argument, 
however, is independent of this fact. Who could have thought that 
England would tax herself to the extent of some £800,000 per 
annum to prevent her own colonists supplying her with cheap sugar 
by means of slave labour, and yet that, in a few years later, she 
would pass an act which admitted slave-grown sugar the produce of 
foreign possessions ? That there was a distinct bargain or contract 
between the colonists and the mother country, to the effect that slave- 
grown sugar never was to be admitted into the markets of this country 
to compete on equal terms with British colonial free-grown sugar, 
and that the fact that they were to be protected against the competi- 
tion of slaveholders was an argument used to make our colonists con- 
tented with the Emancipation Act, I am ready to prove — ready to 
prove it by a mass of testimony, and to the satisfaction of the most 
incredulous jury that ever were impannelled in a jury-box. Nay, 
more, I am ready to show that British Ministers have again and 
again admitted that such was the fact ; -that Lord Stanley, when, by 
mistake, he had used the words " slave-grown" for " foreign-grown," 
when speaking of a differential duty between foreign and British colo- 
nial sugar, and when the mistake was noticed, replied by admitting 
the mistake, adding that every one must have seen that it was a mis- 
take, inasmuch as no one could ever think that Britain would admit 
slave-grown sugar into her markets, after her costly sacrifice to pre- 
vent sugar being made in her own colonies by means of slave labour. 
And Lord Glenelg, at a later date, made a well-known statement to 
the effect that they who were so foolish as to believe that Parliament 
would break its faith with the planters of the West Indies, by ad- 
mitting slave-grown sugar into equal competition with that produced 
by them, displayed, by so believing, an " incapacity for conducting 
the ordinary affairs of life and business.'* 



140 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

But apart from the question of contract, which is one of evidence, 
there is the natural, the necessary conclusion to be drawn — the con- 
clusion which no one could avoid drawing — from the act itself. If 
at such cost England tied the hands of her own colonists as to the 
kind of labour by which they should make sugar, would any sane 
person have believed that she would buy her sugar from foreigners 
who made it in the very way she had so seriously and emphatically 
objected to and protested against? The idea could not have been 
entertained for a moment. 

I maintain, then, that part of the compensation to he given the 
British colonists was, protection from comjpetitiomvith the slaveholder 
of Cuba, Porto Rico, and Brazil; and that the same principle of 
justice was violated hy depriving him of this, as would have been vio- 
lated in depriving him of a portion of the <£20^000;000 which was 
the compensation in money. 

Another subject of complaint, on the part of the West Indian 
colonist, against the conduct of the mother country, has reference to 
the abolition of the apprenticeship system in 1838. It was, say 
they, our bargain that we should have our full share of the 
£20,000,000 in money, the home market for our free-grown sugar, 
and an apprenticeship of seven years. But the mother country 
broke the bargain as to the last, by putting an end to the appren- 
ticeship three years before the legal term of its expiry. There is 
much truth in this complaint, and I know of individual cases of 
great hardship which occurred in connexion with it. In particular, 
I know of a gentleman of British Gruiana who was thereby utterly 
and unexpectedly stripped of the great bulk of a very handsome for- 
tune. But still, with better arguments at my disposal, I am not 
inclined to press this one. There is an answer to at, which, if it 
does not meet the complaint, at least complicates the case. The 
planters of Antigua, from causes peculiar to that metropolitan island, 
declined the apprenticeship; and this fact, combined with authen- 
ticated cases in which the apprenticeship was abused, gave the 
Government of the country at least a plausible excuse for bringing 
the apprenticeship system to a summary termination. 

Before leaving the subject of the price paid by England in token 
of her horror of slavery, and her resolution to put down production 
by means of slave labour, it is proper to refer to the annual cost of 
the squadron, and of the mixed commission, to prevent the slave 
trade from being carried on by the subjects of Spain and of Brazil. 
Enough has been said on this subject in a former part of this book; 
but the argument would not be complete were this part of the price 
paid by us, in the cause of humanity, to be kept out of view. 

And now, to what end has all this anti-slavery policy been gone 
back upon, if not stultified, by the legislation of 1846 and subse- 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 141 

quenfc thereto ? That it has been so — that the act of 1846, altered, 
amended and extended as it was by the act of 1848, has operated as 
a direct encouragement to slavery and to the slave trade, and inflict- 
ed a heavy blow upon our own free colonies, already nearly prostra- 
ted — is now conceded by almost every one who has visited the West 
Indies. But lest there should be any who would desire some proof 
on the subject, let me briefly record a few of the leading facts. 

Of the value of the slave trade — of the permission and means to 
cultivate their estates by slave labour, to the inhabitants of the 
island of Cuba — some graphic idea may be obtained from reflecting 
on the fact stated by Lord Castlereagh, when delivering, in the 
British House of Commons, his speech upon the bill for concluding 
with Spain the treaty of 1817 for the suppression of the slave trade, 
(by which treaty Great Britain covenanted to pay Spain £400,000 
as the j)rice of her assent.) His Lordship mentions a well-known 
fact — viz. that the merchants of Havanna had ofiered the Spanish 
Government many times the amount of the payment to have nothing 
to do with the treaty. " So far,^' says Lord Castlereagh, '^ from our 
money being the only motive which Spain has for acceding to this 
treaty, the Spanish merchants at Havanna had offered five times the 
amount (two millions sterling,) for the privilege of continuing the 
slave trade V It is a somewhat humbling commentary on this state- 
ment of Lord Castlereagh, and on our own capacity, as a nation, to 
trade, to know that, although our French neighbours call us a nation 
of shopkeepers, we have allowed ourselves to be so far overreached 
in this bargain, that Spain has got the money from both. The 
£400,000 she got in cash from lavish England; the £2,000,000 she 
has got from Cuba, chiefly by the tax of fifty dollars a-head on all 
slaves imported into it, in direct evasion of the aforesaid slave treaty. 
As above mentioned, Cuba has been somewhere called the milch-cow 
of Spain ; and well does she merit the appellation, yielding, as she 
does, not less than fifty millions of reals, or about half a million 
sterling, of direct annual revenue to the Spanish crown. That it is 
her slave trade, and her consequent ability to cultivate her fields 
with slave labour, that enables her to yield this large amount from 
taxation, is abundantly well known to all who have made the sub- 
ject their study. No doubt Cuba is favoured as a place of produc- 
tion by the great fertility of her soil, its adaptation for the growth 
of tobacco as well as of sugar, and also by many other circumstances ; 
but the cheapness and other advantages of her slave labour, consti- 
tute undoubtedly the main reason why she is able so to undersell 
the British West Indian colonist. 

That the eff"ect of the Sugar Act of 1846 was to give an in- 
creased impetus to the slave trade, and to advance the prosperity 
of the slave-owner of Spain and Brazil, has often been shown. 



142 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

Tlie statement lias indeed been denied, and attention Las, in the 
way of answer, been directed to the fact that, in 1846, before the 
act passed the British legislature, or at least before intelligence 
of its having passed could have reached Brazil, or the colonies of 
Spain, the slave trade was in active and increased operation. But 
this is a mere evasion of the argument. If the general rumour, 
that such an act was in preparation, and likely to be carried, was 
not sufficient to account for such activity by anticipation, as I 
think it was, there remains the well known fact, that after the 
news of the act having passed reached Cuba, land in that island 
rose in value full thirty per cent., and that, in the summer of 1847, 
the demand for slaves was greater than the slavers could supply. 
While, of the effect of the passing of the act on the trade in slaves, 
it is ascertained that while in 1834 and 1835 the trade was nearly 
extinct, at least in Cuba, in 1846 the number of slaves imported 
was sixty-four thousand, and in 1847 sixty-three thousand. 

It is no doubt true, that the diminished number of the slaves 
imported into Cuba in the years first above mentioned, (1834 and 
1835,) was in some measure owing to the better faith kept, at that 
time, with the British Grovernment by the Spanish authorities at 
Madrid, and their colonial representative, Greneral Yaldez, the then 
Captain-general of the island of Cuba. But still, the coincidence 
between the passing of the act of 1846 and the vast increase in 
the activity of the slave trade, coupled with the acknowledged im- 
provement which, at the same time, developed itself in the sugar 
cultivation in this island, is pregnant with evidence of the most 
important character. It is a favourite argument with those who 
are disposed to defend the legislation which has, of late years, so 
injuriously affected the interests of the British West Indian plant- 
ers, that their necessities will compel these gentlemen to more eco- 
nomical management, and to the adoption of modern improve- 
ments on cane cultivation and in sugar making. No doubt it is a 
truism that what a man has not, he cannot, of his own, spend, 
either in lavish management or otherwise. But without here going 
further into the general argument, or doing more than affirming 
that the British colonial planters have retrenched their expenses 
of management in every possible way, (pared them down to one 
half of what they formerly were,) and also that they have been 
most liberal in their introduction of steam-engines, improved 
ploughs, and patent pans, et lioc genus omne, it may be here asked, 
whether this fact^that it was an increase in the demand, and in 
their profits, and not a falling off, that induced the planters of 
Cuba and of Porto Rico to improve their estates and sugar-works 
— does not practically militate against the above application of the 
theory of " necessity the mother of invention."' 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 143 

But while sucli was the effect of the Sugar Duties Bill of 1846, 
and subsequent legislation of 1848, in enhancing the value of pro- 
perty in slaveholding and sugar-producing countries, and in increas- 
ing the activity of the slave trade, what has been their effects on the 
property of our own colonists in the West Indies ? That is a matter 
of too great notoriety to justify or require lengthened statement or 
illustration. That the British West Indian colonists have been 
loudly complaining that they are ruined, is a fact so generally acknow- 
ledged, that the very loudness and frequency of the complaint has 
been made a reason for disregarding or undervaluing the grounds of 
it. That the West Indians are always grumbling is an observation 
often heard ; and, no doubt, it is very true that they are so. But 
let any one who thinks that the extent and clamour of the complaint 
exceeds the magnitude of the distress which has called it forth, go 
to the West Indies, and judge for himself. Let him see with his 
own eyes the neglected and abandoned estates — the uncultivated 
fields fast hurrying back into a state of nature, with all the speed of 
tropical luxuriance — the dismantled and silent machinery, the crum- 
bling walls and deserted mansions, which are familiar sights in most 
of the British West Indian colonies. Let him then transport him- 
self to the Spanish Islands of Porto Rico and Cuba, and witness the 
life and activity which in these slave colonies prevail. Let him 
observe for himself the activity of the slavers — the improvements 
daily making in the cultivation of the fields, and in the processes 
carried on at the Ingenios or sugar-mills, and the general indescrib- 
able air of thriving and prosperity which surrounds the whole — and 
then let him come back to England and say, if he honestly can, that 
the British West Indian planters and proprietors are grumblers who 
complain without adequate cause. 

Take Jamaica, the chief of the British islands, as a sample of the 
present condition of the British possessions in these seas, and ex uno 
disce omnes. It appears from the report of the committee of the 
House of Assembly in that island, appointed in 1847 to inquire into 
the cause and extent of the agricultural distress, that, of the 653 
sugar estates in cultivation in Jamaica in the year 1834, (the year 
of emancipation) only 503 were cultivated in 1847, the remaining 
150 estates, containing 168,032 acres of land, and employing upwards 
of 23,000 labourers, having been abandoned. This was in 1847 : 
the downward tendency has certainly not been checked since then — 
matters are now a great deal worse than they were in 1847 as regards 
the growth of the sugar-cane in Jamaica. Were we to take into 
view the coffee cultivation, the detail would be still more distressing. 
To the one fact above stated a thousand might be added, and all to 
the same disheartening effect ; but the one fact will be easiest remem- 
bered, and it speaks volumes. The same observation as to the deser- 



X44 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

tion of estates may be made witli regard to all the other colonies, 
(Barbadoes alone excepted,) though not to the same extent or in the 
same proportion. In particular, British Guiana has suffered much 
from the abandonment of estates ; and even while I write, I have 
before me (supplied me by the kindness of an intelligent friend in 
that colony) a list of fifty-six cotton, coffee, but chiefly sugar estates, 
deserted and abandoned in that productive and vast possession of late 
years, because wholly unprofitable. Indeed, this colony has suffered 
very severely and peculiarly from this cause ; which arises no doubt 
from the great extent of territory embraced within its limits, and 
the paucity of the negro population wherewith to carry on the 
cultivation. 

No doubt, it has been said that much of the unprofitable results 
of sugar cultivation in the British West Indies is due to the profuse 
habits of the planters and proprietors, and the expensive system of 
agriculture and manufacture which they pursued ; and it has been 
further said, that if they introduced machinery — steam-engines, and 
patent processes for preparing their sugar — they would so cheapen 
the productions as at once to put themselves in a position success- 
fully to compete with the slaveholder. In so far as this charge of 
profuse management applies to sugar cultivation in the British West 
Indies, up to the passing of the Emancipation Act, or even for some 
time subsequent thereto, I might, as the result of my inquiries into 
the past condition of the colonies, be prepared to admit that there 
was some truth in it. Large profits will generally, and in all coun- 
tries, lead to undue profusion both of living and of management; 
and it were idle to deny that, for many years, the profits from AVest 
Indian cultivation were great — were occasionally very great when 
compared with the remuneration from other sources of investment. 
So late even as the year 1846, the British colonists were getting in 
the markets of this country so high a price for their sugar as from 
£38 to £40 for a hogshead, weighing from seventeen or eighteen 
hundredweight; and, when it is kept in view that an acre of planted 
canes would produce two-and-a-half or three of such hogsheads; 
and that, excessively various as certainly are the estimates of the 
cost of sugar-making in the different colonies, or even on different 
estates in the same colony, few would estimate that expense in 1846 
at more than from 18s. to 20s. a hundredweight, exclusive of freight 
and shipping charges, it cannot be denied, even by the colonist of 
most extravagant hopes, that the above-stated remuneration was at 
a very handsome rate. This extreme remuneration, however, was 
only for a short time, and in very peculiar circumstances. 

But if the charge of profusion of living, expensiveness of manage- 
ment, or neglect of modern improvements, is intended to apply to 
to the state of all or of any of the islands of Barbadoes, Antigua, St. 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 145 

Kitt's, Nevis, Montserrat, or Jamaica, in the year 1849, 1 give it ad- 
visedly and deliberately the most emphatic, decided, and unqualified 
contradiction. As regards improvements in modes of cultivation, 
and the introduction of steam-engines and other machinery, the won- 
der only is, that, with such a backgoing trade, the West Indian plan- 
ters have had the courage so to lay out their own funds or come 
under obligations to others. Hope, however, delights to brighten 
the prospects of the future ; and thus it is that the British West In- 
dian planter goes on from year to year, struggling against his down- 
ward progress, and still hoping that something may yet turn up, to 
retrieve his ruined fortunes. But all do not struggle on. Many 
have given in, and many more can and will confirm the statement of 
a venerable friend of my own — a gentleman high in ojfice in one of 
the islands above-mentioned — who, when showing me his own estate 
and sugar-works, assured me, that for above a quarter of a century 
they had yielded him nearly £2000 per annum j and that now, de- 
spite all his efforts and improvements, (which were many,) he could 
scarcely manage to make the cultivation pay itself. Instances of this 
kind might be multiplied till the reader was tired, and even heart- 
sick, of such details. But what need of such ? Is it not notorious ? 
Has it not been proved by the numerous failures that have taken 
place of late years, among our most extensive West Indian merchants ? 
Are not the reports of almost all the governors of our colonial posses- 
sions filled with statements to the effect, that great depreciation of 
property has taken place in all and each of our West Indian colonies, 
and that great has been the distress consequent thereupon ? These 
governors are, of course, all of them imbued, to some extent, with 
the Ministerial policy — at least it is reasonable to assume that they 
are so. At all events, whether they are so or not, their position 
almost necessitates their doing their utmost to carry out, with suc- 
cess, the Ministerial views and general policy. To embody the sub- 
stance of the answer given by a talented Lieutenant-governor, in my 
own hearing, to an address which set forth, somewhat strongly, the 
ruined prospects and wasted fortunes of the colonists under his go- 
vernment, — "It must, or it ought to be, the object and the desire of 
every Governor or Lieutenant-governor, in the British West Indian 
islands, to disappoint and stultify, if he can, the prognostications of 
coming ruin with which the addresses he receives from time to time 
are continually charged." Yet what say these Grovernors ? Do not 
the reports of one and all of them confirm the above statement as to 
the deplorable state of distress to which the West Indian planters, 
in the British colonies, are now reduced ? No doubt, (and the pages 
of any popular review since 1807 bear testimony to the fact,) we 
have had a long continuance of complaint — nay, even of the cry of 
distress — from the West Indian proprietors. Since the abolition of 

13 



146 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

the slave trade, we have never wanted the party watchword of ^^ jus- 
tice to the colonies.'' But let us take care that we do not apply the 
philosophy of the fable of the boy and the wolf. Whatever may 
have been the amount of cause for complaint in days gone by, there 
is no doubt of the fact that now the British West Indian planters 
have been brought, actually and literally^ to the verge of ruin ; and 
I know not what that minister or statesman would deserve of this 
country, who would devise and carry out the measure that would 
lead to a restoration to a self-supporting or moderately prosperous 
condition. Often, while witnessing those evidences of decadence, 
which were so constantly obtruding themselves, did I wish that the 
vote could have been taken over again on the Sugar Duties Bill of 
1846 — each member of the House of Commons having, previous to 
voting, prepared himself by a trip through the West Indian islands. 
How different would have been the result ! It is one thing to hear 
a matter discussed, particularly where there is only a half or a halt- 
ing account given of its truth, but it is quite another thing to con- 
template the facts of the case for one's self; and thoroughly confident 
am I that, as ^^ seeing is believing," if our legislators saw the actual 
condition of our West Indian colonies, there would not be perseve- 
rance in the present system of legislation regarding them — or, if 
there was, some counteracting and remedial measures at least would 
be devised and carried out. 

In the colonial speech of the Premier of Great Britain, in the 
early part of the present session of Parliament, he distinctly and 
emphatically enunciated these positions, — ''That England must 
retain her colonies ; and that, while it was her duty as well as her 
interest so to do, she could not, consistently with the discharge of 
that duty or with her general policy, permit the native or imported 
races in any portion of these possessions to relapse into barbarism.'' 
These are noble principles and professions. How they are all to 
be carried out as regards the West Indian colonies, consistently 
with perseverance in free trade in sugar — slave as well as free 
grown — it passes my comprehension to know. 

And where is all this downward tendency — this facilis descensus 
— to end? The object in view in passing the statutes of 1846 and 
1848 was cheap sugar, and to carry out the principles of free trade 
in all their integrity and purity. It was and is said, (and truly 
said,) that sugar has become, not an article of luxury, but of 
necessity; and also that the consumption of it is increasing and 
will increase; and that it is unjust to tax the home consumer for 
the benefit of the colonial producer. And it is farther said, that, 
having adventured on a great experiment of free trade, it behoved 
the Grovernment to carry it out in all its integrity ; that it would 
not have done to have stopped short in its application, from a 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 147 

regard to any one particular interest. Now these arguments may, 
to a certain extent, and as postulates, be conceded, without justify- 
ing the Ministerial policy in reference to the Sugar Duties Bill, 
and the subsequent legislation. I say to a certain extent ; for I do 
not mean to carry the admission the length of holding that cheap 
sugar is a matter of so much necessity as to justify the Govern- 
ment in promoting a reduction of its price in the home market, 
fas aut 7iefas — by unlawful as well as by lawful means — by breach 
of agreement as well as by more legitimate courses. Nor do I 
mean to admit that '^free trade" is so desirable; or that, once 
adventured on, even as an experiment, it is so necessary to apply 
it to everything — to carry it out in all its integrity — for that is the 
clap-trap phrase — that everything must give way to such conside- 
rations, so as to leave no room for exceptional cases. But, short 
of carrying the admission this insane length, it may be conceded 
that sugar is an article, not merely of luxury to the rich, but of 
necessity to the poor, so that the Grovernment are bound to do 
everything lawful to cheapen the sugar market ; and further, that 
free trade, once adventured on, should not be abandoned till fairly 
tried, and until the results, being tested by experience, are found 
to be unjust and injurious. But mark the answers that remain, 
even after such admissions have been made. The measure of 1846 
will not, in the end, tend to the cheapening of the sugar market 
in this country. It will necessarily lead to the withdrawal of the 
British colonists from the competion — if not to the lapsing of the 
British West Indian islands into a state of Haytian semi-barbarism 
and unproductiveness — if they do not, in the hands of some other 
power, and when abandoned by England, return to an enslaved 
condition. Again, and with reference to the second branch of the 
argument under answer, the principles of free trade can never be 
properly applied, if the effect of the application be to place in one 
and the same category the man who is unfettered in his mode of 
working, and the man who is fettered. Not to weary my readers, 
I shall content myself with a very few simple remarks, in illustra- 
tion of my meaning as regards both of these positions. 

Sugar has fallen in price since the passing of the act in 1846. 
Every old lady knows the fact in the saving of her twopence or 
threepence a-week, and many, no doubt, rejoice in it. But why 
has it fallen ? Because slave-grown sugar was then admitted to 
compete with and keep down the price of free-grown sugar. The 
first and immediate effect was to produce a great diminution in the 
importation of sugar from the British possessions in the West In- 
dies — only 107,368 tons being thence brought in 1846, while 
142,700 tons were imported in 1845. 

No doubt, the statute retained an advantage in favour of free- 
grown sugar, in the shape of a gradually lessening protective duty 



148 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

— (although, it may be remarked in passing, that it will be found, 
on a comparison of the scales of duty for the different kinds of 
sugar, that this advantage is not quite so great as at first sight 
appears.) But I have written to little purpose if I have not already 
shown that sugar produced by the labour of slaves can afford to 
give " free-grown sugar'^ even a greater advantage than the statute 
concedes to it. In a circular of Messrs. Drake, Brothers, & Co., 
of Havanna, for the year 1844 (the writers being then, and I pre- 
sume now, among the leading merchants of that town of gay life 
and unsavoury smells,) it is openly announced to the world, ^' That 
they (Messrs. D. B. & Co.) had no expectation of the price of sugar 
(i. e. Cuban sugar) being improved, except by having the English 
market opened to the produce of the island f adding, " if this 
were effected, at a rate even of Ji/fi/ per cent, above the duty on 
English colonial sugar, still they should obtain for their produce 
double the amount they can obtain at present. ^^ This is surely 
sufficiently cool and conclusive. These long-headed, enterprising 
Havanna merchants quietly tell their equally knowing customers, 
that fifty per cent, of a differential duty, in favour of the British 
planter, would virtually be but little of a protection ; or, at least, 
that the slave-owner of Cuba could easily afford him so much. 
When we find practical men addressing practical men in such 
terms as these, it is surely not to be wondered at that our "West 
Indian suffering friends should disjjlay some degree of impatience 
when they hear it urged in the high places of Parliament, and 
elsewhere, that with economy of management, and improvements 
in cultivation, they ought to be able to contend successfully in a 
competition with sugar which is the produce of slave-labour. 

To the same effect, and in strict consistency, we find the intel- 
ligent foreign merchants above referred to — Messrs. Brake, Bro- 
thers, and Co. of Havanna — on the 8th of January, 1848, address- 
ing their constituents in these terms — the intelligent reader will 
mark the contrast, — ^^ The production of 1847 has far exceeded 
that of any previous year, and the prices obtained by planters have 
been so highly remunerative, that they are enabled to adopt every 
means for the further extension of their crops. ''^ And that the 
cause of such unprecedented prosperity of the slave-owner, and of 
his highly remunerative prices, which so enabled him to carry out 
the most extensive improvements on his cane cultivation, might 
not be disputed or unappreciated by himself or others, another 
circular says — " During the past year the prices of sugar in our 
markets were supported at high rates, with but slight and tempo- 
rary fluctuations, notwithstanding the large crop. This was mainly 
owing to the unprecedentedly heavy shipments to the United States 
and to Great Britain , aided by a well-sustained inquiry from Spain, 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 149 

with a fair demand from other parts." To show that the writers 
of these circulars were quite correct, in ascribing the increase in 
the Cuban production of 1847 over that of 1846 to the opening of 
the British markets, and the supporting of the prices to the " un- 
precedentedly heavy shipments to Grreat Britain," it may be pro- 
per to mention the fact, that the quantity of foreign sugar (a large 
portion of it being from Cuba) imported into G-reat Britain in 
1847, was nearly double that of 1846; the respective quantities 
being 63,211 tons of foreign sugar imported in 1846, and 123,762 
tons of foreign sugar imported in 1847. 

It was a free-trade argument used by Mr. Bright, in 1848, that 
the statute of 1846 could not be said to have increased the slave 
trade — or, in other words, the prosperity of the slave countries and 
colonies — seeing that the number of slaves imported into Cuba in 
1846 exceeded (which they did by about a thousand) the number 
imported in 1847. And it has often, in the British House of Com- 
mons and elsewhere, been said, that the evidence adduced on the 
subject of West India distress is to be regarded with distrust and 
suspicion, being the evidence of interested parties. But without 
going into this oft-agitated question, or attempting any answer to 
this very convenient way of disposing of the concurrent statements 
of a host of persons, all otherwise most credible, what is to be said 
of this evidence from the slaveholders themselves ? We have here 
a statement on the part of the Cubans, that they were able, even 
before the passing of the act of 1846, to undersell the British colo- 
nist, were he protected in the home market by a differential duty of 
fifty per cent ; and further, we have the same parties consistently 
accounting for the large crop and highly remunerating prices of 
1847, by attributing both to the encouragement given, and demand 
created, by the large exportation to Grreat Britain consequent on the 
passing of that act. 

Nor can it be said that it is anything connected with his climate, 
soil, or mode of cultivation, that gives the slaveholder so great an 
advantage. It cannot be said that he has surpassed, or even come 
up to the British colonist, in regard to the improved modes of cul- 
ture or of manufacturing ; that has not, and cannot be said. The 
existence of slavery, the liberty to work his fields and manufacture 
his crop by means of slaves, is the alone cause which creates the 
difference in the expense. 

But if the Cuban or other slaveholder can undersell, or compete 
with, the British colonist, even when the latter is protected by a 
differential duty, what is to be the result when the parties shall be 
placed on an entire equality, as they will now, under the operation 
of the Sugar Duties Bill, be at no very distant date ? It is this 
consideration I would earnestly desire to draw attention to } and, in 

13* 



150 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

particular I would desire to draw to it the attention of the numerous 
friends of the Negro race. I make no pretensions to the spirit of 
prophecy, and I confess myself very much at sea as to the future 
prospects of these beautiful islands of the Western Archipelago, 
in which I passed so many pleasant days. But, without pretending 
to see far into the future, there are one or two things that may 
safely be predicated as to the ulterior results. Should the 
downward, ruinous tendency continue — if it be not arrested by 
the legislative measures of England, or by some other contin- 
gency — one of two things will certainly follow : either the British 
West Indian Islands will cease to be cultivated for the growth of 
sugar, and the estates, at present so occupied, will be devoted to 
the culture of other things; or, ceasing to be cultivated at all for 
purposes of exportation, these estates will be deserted entirely by 
their European proprietors, and either allowed to become overgrown 
with " bush,^^ or be taken possession of for Negro gardens and inde- 
pendent villages. In either case, what becomes of our cheap sugar ? 
The price is now kept down chiefly by the competition between the 
free-grown sugar of the British possessions and the slave-grown 
sugar of Brazil, Cuba, and Porto Rico There is a supply from the 
colonial possessions of other countries, &c., but that supply is not so 
considerable as to affect the present argument. Now, what would 
be the effect of the supply of sugar from the British colonial pos- 
sessions, in the western seas, being destroyed, or even materially 
lessened ? What consequences might naturally be expected to ensue 
from a serious diminution in the sugar productions of the British 
West Indies ?* The first most obvious answer to these questions is, 
— That such a falling off in the supply would of necessity produce 

* In reference to this part of the subject, it was in view to have given the reader 
a tabular statistical statement, showing the proportion which the production of, 
and the amount of importations yj-om, the British West Indian possessions bears to 
the sugar productions of the whole world, and to the total importation of sugar into 
Great Britain ; and also the proportion which the British West Indian sugar re- 
tained for consumption, bears to the whole sugar consumed in this country — as 
well as some additional particulars on these subjects. Indeed I had possessed my- 
self of many materials to enable me to do this with accuracy; and, in the collection 
of these, had availed myself of the information and intelhgence of several gentle- 
men practically and minutely acquainted with the sugar trade, among whom I 
would respectfully name Messrs. Connal & Co., of Glasgow. But the details 'and 
particulars being collected, I have found the total sugar production of the whole 
world so variously stated, and subject to so manj; explanations ; the annual impor- 
tation of sugar !into Great Britain so fluctuating, and its consumption therein so 
vai'ious, (depending mainly on the rate of wages;) and the proportion between 
foreign sugar and molasses, and colonial sugar and molasses used in this country 
liable to so many qualifying explanations, that to carry out the task I thus con- 
templated, would have led me far beyond the limits to which this Chapter ought 
to extend. Besides, I also found, that for aU the purposes of my argument, and 
without in the least affecting the soundness of the conclusions arrived at, the 
statistical premises may be set forth in a general way, and in round numbers. Of 
this the reader will of course judge for himself, when he has completed his perusal 
of my remarks. 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 151 

an enhancing of the price. On this all are agreed. But, would this 
enhancement of the price be temporary or permanent ? and, if 
merely the former, would it endure for a great length of time ? 
Without, at least for the present, considering the value of the argu- 
ment which arises from supposing that the proper answer to this 
question is, that any advancement of price so created would not be 
of long duration — I am solicitous of considering the soundness of 
the opinion such an answer embodies ; and that chiefly because I 
have found the opinion one generally prevalent among some men 
whose views are entitled to the highest respect. Now, the most care- 
ful consideration I have been able to give the subject, leads me to 
the conclusion that any considerable diminution in the cultivation — 
and consequently in the sugar production — of the British West 
Indies, would to a certainty lead to such a permanent, or at least 
long continued, enhancement of the price of sugar in this country, 
as would seriously interfere with its consumption, enrich the slave- 
holders of Brazil and of Spain, and their respective governments, 
encourage slavery, and procrastinate the period of its endurance; 
and prove that the English sugar legislation of 18-46 and 1848 had 
been at least but a short-sighted policy. Let the soundness of this 
opinion be tested by the consideration of the following facts. 

The production of, and the demand for, sugar throughout the 
world is nearly balanced ; so that any derangement in the sources of 
supply only leads to an enhancing of the price in all the markets ; 
and any additional demand in one country can only be supplied by a 
proportionate withdrawal from the others. Nay, more : if the sup- 
ply of sugar has increased, the consumption has increased in even 
more than an equal ratio. Up to 1842, the quantity of sugar made 
for exportation by the whole sugar-making countries and colonies of 
the world, was estimated at about 670,000 tons ; in 1849, (according 
to the circular of Messrs Trueman & Rouse, dated 1st June of that 
year,) about 970,000 tons. Both these estimates are exclusive of 
the beetroot-sugar of France, Prussia, and Belgium, &c., which may 
safely be taken at 100,000 tons in 1842, and 90,000 tons in 1849; 
the production of sugar from beet having unquestionably fallen off 
during later years. The total sugar production of 1842 was thus 
under 800,000 tons, and that of 1849 above 1,050,000 tons. Now, 
while such was the production for the supply of this necessary of 
life for the whole world, what was the quantity, or about the average 
quantity, consumed in Great Britain ? And what was and is the 
proportion of that consumption supplied by those noble West Indian 
possessions, whose possible abandonment we are now contemplating ? 
Here, too, the statistics might be given in round numbers, without 
affecting the argument. The numbers stated will, however, be found 
to be as nearly as possible correct. It appears, from the valuable 



152 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

tables of Mr. Porter, that the quantity of sugar (including molasses, 
equivalent to sugar) retained in this country for consumption for 
each of the ten years between, and inclusive of, the years 1830 and 
1840, was about 200,000 tons (the numbers ranging between 190,000 
tons and 220,000 tons, nearly, according to the rise and fall in the 
rate of wages). We have seen that, up to 1840, the total produc- 
tion (beetroot-sugar inclusive) was considerably short of 800,000 
tons. But by 1849 both numbers had greatly increased ; that which 
indicates the consumption of this country having, however, increased 
in the greater ratio. As above stated, the whole sugar (beet in- 
cluded) produced in 1849, may be estimated at about 1,050,000 
tons. But the consumption of sugar in Great Britain for 1849 was 
299,880 tons, and of molasses 40,620 tons; and, reducing the mo- 
lasses to sugar, the total consumption of Great Britain for 1849 may 
safely be stated at upwards of 317,000 tons. 

With the above-stated facts before him, it is quite unnecessary to 
say to any one that a serious diminution in the sugar production of 
the British West Indian colonies would operate very injuriously on 
the comforts as well as on the pockets of the people of Great Britain. 
But we are brought even still more conclusively, to the same result, 
when we consider the proportion which the importation from the 
British possessions in the West Indies bears to the whole importa- 
tion of sugar into this country. If not from time immemorial, at 
least ever since sugar became the necessary of life it is now regarded, 
the sugar consumed in Great Britain has been mainly supplied from 
her own colonial empire. As a matter of course, this remark is 
made without reference to the earlier introduction of sugar into Eng- 
land in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when, according to 
Mr. M'Culloch, it was brought over to this country by the Venetians 
and Genoese in small quantities, and as an article of high luxury. 
Indeed, it was not till about the beginning of the eighteenth century 
that the consumption of sugar in Great Britain reached an amount 
to call for special notice. Even during the first year of that century, 
the total consumption was only 10,000 tons; while up to the year 
1786 the increase had raised it to 81,000 tons, or thereby. Its sub- 
sequent rapid increase may be understood from remarks which have 
been previously made ; and had it not been made so very much a 
subject of taxation and of revenue, there can be no doubt but that 
the consumption would have extended itself with much greater ra- 
pidity, to the increase of the population, the extension of the culti- 
vation, and the advancement of the general prosperity of the British 
West Indies. Now, till within the last few years, nearly the whole 
of the sugar thus supplied for home consumption has been drawn 
from the dependencies of Great Britain — the duty on the importa- 
tion on foreign sugar being so high as to amount to a prohibition, or 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 153 

nearly so. Nay more, up to about the year 1820, almost the whole 
of the sugar used in this country was brought from our tropical pos- 
sessions in the West Indian seas. Up to the year named^ the impor- 
tation of East Indian sugar was very trifling ; and it was not till 
1825, when the sugar of the Mauritius was placed on an equal foot- 
ing with that imported from the British colonies in the West Indies, 
that the importation of sugar from the Mauritius became consider- 
able in its amount. 

Even yet, and notwithstanding the great change which has come 
over the spirit of our commercial policy ; leaving out of view that 
system under which, if not in consequence of which. Great Britain 
attained a position of commercial greatness unrivalled in ancient, and 
without paralled in modern times ; and notwithstanding, also, that 
by the philanthropic abolition of slavery in our own colonies, while it 
yet continued in the colonies which surrounded them, and in which 
produce similar to theirs is manufactured, we have made the sugar 
question a special and exceptional case; notwithstanding that, in 
disregard of these and other considerations, the door has been opened 
to a competition between foreign slave-grown and colonial free-grown 
sugar in the markets of this country — still, a very large proportion 
of the whole sugar consumed in Great Britain is supplied from our 
own colonial possessions in the West Indian Archipelago. By les- 
sening the number of labourers for conducting the operations in the 
fields, or at the boiling-house and distillery, one of the effects of the 
Emancipation Act was to inflict a heavy blow upon the production of 
the British West Indies. It fell off very greatly. In 1834 it was 
192,098 tons; in 1841 it had fallen to 107,500 tons; thereafter it 
revived in consequence of the introduction of machinery, and the 
adoption of improved modes of husbandry and manufacture, till 
1846 when it again fell off to 107,368 tons. It has since somewhat 
improved, and in 1849 the quantity of sugar imported into this 
country from the British West Indies was 142,240 tons; while 
120,870 tons were brought from the Mauritius and the East Indies, 
and 98,045 tons from foreign parts — all exclusive of the importation 
of molasses. 

It is thus seen that, even yet, the sugar imported from her own 
possessions in the West Indies foritis a large proportion of the whole 
sugar imported into Great Britain ; so that any serious diminution in 
the amount of that import, (or, in other words,. in the extent of the 
sugar cultivation of the British West Indies,) would have a very 
serious effect on the price of sugar in this country. But the most 
important consideration is yet to come. Nothing more conclusively 
appears, from a comparison of the statistical tables relative to the 
sugar trade, then does the fact that while, on a comparison of years, 
the importation of foreign sugar is increasing, that of British colo- 



154 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

nial is diminishing. The relative proportions may vary in different 
years, but the general result is as I have stated it. The supply of 
foreign sugar and molasses is increasing; and if matters progress 
even just as they have been doing, the gradual increase in the amount 
required will be supplied by importations from foreign, and almost 
entirely from slaveholding countries and colonies, to the great en- 
couragement of slavery and of the slave trade, if not to the ruin of 
the free sugar-growing colonies of Great Britain. 

But will not a continuance of the present system eventuate in the 
ruin of the British West Indian colonies, at least as sugar-producing 
countries ? To my mind it appears that it must do so. Already the 
present competition in the home market, between free and slave 
grown sugar, has had the effect of throwing out of cultivation many 
of the sugar estates in the British possessions. If such is the case 
even now, when there exists a protective or differential duty of about 
5s. 9d. per cwt., what is to be the effect in 1854, when the opera- 
tion of this principle of competition has been pushed to its climax ? 
Must not that effect be the sure, though gradual, withdrawal of the 
British West Indian colonists altogether from the competition ? And 
if so, must not the price of sugar then rise, and rise very greatly ? 
No doubt it has been and may be said, that even were such a deplo- 
rable result to be the legitimate issue of a continuance of our free- 
trade policy as regards the article of sugar, yet the effect would not 
be the permanent enhancement of the price of this now necessary 
commodity, inasmuch as any serious falling off in the production in 
the British colonies would stimulate production in foreign countries, 
and the extent of territory in which sugar might be grown being 
very great, the consequence of that stimulated production would be 
the maintenance of present prices. Now, apart from the answer to 
this argument, that it resolves the whole question into one of cheap- 
ness of price, I more than question its soundness ; nay, I deny that 
it is sound. We have seen that, even with the production of the 
tropical possessions of England in the West Indies, the production 
of the sugar produced in all parts of the globe has not increased in 
a greater ratio than the demand for it has done ; and we have also 
seen how large a proportion of that total production is the sugar 
made in the British West Indian possessions. I cannot, therefore, 
suppose that even the most enthusiastic advocate for the integrity 
of free-trade principles, or the most credulous believer in the suffi- 
ciency of such principles to maintain and preserve a due equilibrium 
between the demand and the supply, can imagine that, should the 
time ever come when the competition of Brazilian, Cuban, and other 
slave-grown sugar shall have driven the British planter out of the 
market, the former will not have a virtual monopoly of the sugar 
market; and the advantage of the enhanced prices which such mono- 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 155 

poly will of necessity create. Is there any one, who knows anything 
of the statistics of the sugar trade, who supposes for a moment that 
the supply of sugar to be had from the British possessions in the 
East, the Mauritius, the free colonies of other countries, or any other 
place, would suffice to prevent the production of such a result ? The 
sugar annually made by means of slaves in Brazil, and in the colo- 
nies of Spain, at present amounts to nearly a third more than the 
whole quantity made in the British West Indian colonies, British 
India, and the Mauritius. Were the first of the three last-mentioned 
sources of supply cut off, (as my argument supposes,) the production 
from the two last-mentioned would not amount to much more than 
the quantity at present exported from Brazil alone. It is not, then, 
to be supposed that even the party most desirous of the continuance 
of the present system of colonial policy, and most prepared to go the 
whole length of meeting all the consequences that may or can result 
from its application, rather than go back upon any part of this favour- 
ite theory of free trade, will be disposed to conduct the argument 
upon the assumption or admission, that probably, or even possibly, 
a continuance of the present system of placing slave-grown and free- 
grown sugar on an equality, in the home market, may eventuate in 
driving the British colonist out of the market altogether. Such per- 
son will rather be disposed to deny the probability, or even the pos- 
sibility, of such a result. Indeed, it is plainly the only course which 
there is left for him to pursue. It would never do to suppose the 
possibility of our West Indian colonies ceasing entirely to export 
sugar to the mother country. Not only is the very idea one that, if 
seriously entertained, would rouse the feelings and excite the ener- 
gies of the whole nation ; not only would it involve the supposition, 
that all oft-quoted £20,000,000 of compensation money had been 
thrown away; not only would it be to assume that all Britain's 
efforts to ameliorate the condition of the unfortunate sons of Ham in 
the West Indies had only terminated in leaving them in a worse 
condition that that in which they were, when first, in 1807, our 
course of legislative philanthropy was adventured on ; not only would 
the idea of the British West Indian colonists abandoning the culti- 
vation of the sugar-cane involve all this and more : it would likewise 
involve the admission that the policy of the sugar duties, statutes of 
1846 and 1848 had failed; that, while the object aimed at by our 
new legislative acts was to cheapen sugar to the British consumer, 
that object had not been eventually attained — nay, the result had 
been the other way. After a few years of cheapness, caused by un- 
equal competition between slave and free grown sugar, the produc- 
tion of the latter had been given up as unprofitable ; and the manu- 
facturer of the former, having it all his own way, or nearly so, had 
advanced prices to a higher point than they had ever attained before 



156 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

the introduction of the measure which had thus driven the British 
planter from the field of competition. 

Supposing the Cuban or Brazilian to be actuated by the ordinary 
principles of human nature, such a result may be predicated, with 
certainty, as the issue of the British West Indies being driven out 
of the sugar market. But even supposing these parties to be so 
negligent to their own interests, or so enamoured of the principles of 
free trade, as to allow prices to remain at the minimum to which 
competition had reduced them, there is still the little less than cer- 
tainty of the Spanish and Brazilian governments imposing export 
duties, or additional export duties, so soon as they found that their 
doing so would not prevent the consumption of their sugar by Eng- 
land and her possessions. 

Now, if there be any probability in the views above stated — if 
there be any grounds even, for supposing that the result contemplated 
is within the immense cycle of possible things — is this not a subject 
which is well worthy of the serious consideration, not only of the 
statesmen and legislators of this great country, but of the whole 
thinking portion of the nation ? And if it be the fact, as many do 
now aver, and offer to prove it to be, (by a host of witnesses too prac- 
tical to be themselves deceived, too honest to desire to deceive others, 
and too consistent and concurrent in their testimony to be easily 
gainsayed), that the anticipated issue is, even now, in operation ; that 
the resultts of that legislation which will in 1854 place colonial, 
free, and foreign slave-grown sugar on an equal footing, — in respect 
of duties, for, relative value considered, they are already on an 
equality — has been to lessen, and will be to destroy, the production 
of the former kind altogether, — surely it is high time for all who 
feel an interest in the welfare of England, or of her West India 
colonies, or even a desire for permanent cheapness of sugar, to exert 
themselves, if they may, by so doing, discover a means whereby so 
great an evil may be prevented or avoided. Here the question is 
only considered as it is likely to affect the interests of the sugar con- 
sumers of Great Britain. We have, for the present, nothing to do 
with the effects of the possible or probable lessening or abandonment 
of sugar cultivation of the West Indies by the British colonist, on 
the condition and destinies of these colonies, or of the Negro race 
which at present inhabit them — that is a separate question; and it 
is a wide and an important one, for which we may, or may not, have 
room to treat in this work. The subject here in hand is the interest 
the whole inhabitants of Great Britain have in the consideration of 
the question of whether a continuance of that legislation, which will 
eventually place slave and free productions on an equal footing in 
the markets of England, is, or is not, likely to lead to the abandon- 
ment or serious diminution of sugar cultivation in the West Indies 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 157 

— and this question will be found to be a sufficiently important one. 
To treat of it at the length it would justify, if not require, were 
beyond the limits of a work like this; but a few facts and considera- 
tions will, it is conceived, be sufficient to place the subject in a light 
which will show that it at least deserves, and loudly calls for, the 
most serious attention. 

Were the subject not encircled with elements of painful reflection to 
most persons who have personally witnessed the blighted hopes and 
ruined fortunes of our fellow-subjects in the "West Indies, it would 
be simply amusing to see the manner in which the topic of West 
Indian distress is generally treated, by specimens of every class of 
politicians in this country. It is not confined to one class, it seems 
to pervade all — Tory, Conservative, Whig, Radical, and Chartist — 
all seem to adopt something of the same style of getting over or 
away from the consideration of the subject. AIL the parties here 
referred to profess to admit the existence of West Indian distress, 
and all of them seem also to admit that the West Indians have not 
had justice done to them, and to deplore that such is the fact; but 
all of them, at the same time, decline to commit themselves to any 
practical remedy, or at least decline to admit that any such remedy 
can possibly be looked for in an interference with their own peculiar 
and favourite political nostrums. The Tory or Conservative will 
shake his head, and, while he admits that the West Indies are nearly 
ruined, he will point, at the same time, to the fact that the landed in- 
terests of England have also had much of depressing influence to con- 
tend against — as if there were any proper or legitimate bond of con- 
nexion between the two ; or as if, even though there were, the repe- 
tition of an injustice were an extenuation, instead of an aggravation, 
of an ofi'ence. The Radical and Chartist, also, will complacently 
admit the fact of West Indian depression ; but they will, at the same 
time, declaim loudly of sugar being now a necessary of the poor 
man's life — of the advantages of cheap sugar — and of its being expe- 
dient, in all cases, that a nation should buy in the cheapest as well 
as sell in the dearest markets : as if it were a settled thing that the 
present free-trade policy, as regards this commodity, were the one 
most calculated to produce a permanent lowering of the price ; or as 
if there were nothing either in national faith, or in national consist- 
ency, where self-interest, or what was supposed to be so, stood in the 
way. Now it is only right that all this evasion of the real argument 
should be put aside, and that this truly great West Indian question 
should be viewed apart from all political views, either of one kind 
or of another. The question is one of interest as well as of justice, 
and the sooner the nation views it in this light, the better for all par- 
ties. It is the interest as well as the bargain of this country, that 
she should protect her colonists from the competition of slave-grown 

14 



158 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

produce. It is her bargain, because, when she tied the hands of 
these colonists, by precluding them from the employment of slaves 
in the cultivation and management of their estates, she conditioned, 
as well expressly as by implication, that at no future period would 
they ever find her so far and so decidedly encouraging slavery as to 
expose them to competition from the slave-grown produce of for- 
eigners, at least in the home market. It is her interest, because, it 
having been to demonstration and by experience proven, that, in the 
present state of the West Indies, culture or labour by freemen can 
never be so remunerative (in other words, can never compete with) 
the labour of slaves, the necessary effect of placing the two on equal 
footing must be to drive the free produce out of the market ; and, 
consequently, to lead eventually to the abandonment of the sugar 
plantations, boiling-houses, and distilleries, at present in cultivation 
and operation in the free colonies of England. The word advisedly 
used here is "eventually" — not because there is, even now, any 
doubt of the fact that the cultivation of a sugar estate, in most of 
the British colonies in the West Indies, cannot be profitably con- 
ducted in the face of a competition on equal terms (as will soon be 
the case) with the slave-grown sugar of Cuba, Porto Hico, or the 
Brazils — no ; the qualifying word is employed, simply because the 
writer has had many opportunities of observing the " hope against 
hope'^ which animates the great body of West Indian planters in the 
British colonies. With their all perilled on the venture, and know- 
ing personally and full well how important to England is the preser- 
vation of her colonies, as accessories and aids to her mercantile and 
naval supremacy, and strong in an ardent attachment to the consti- 
tution and institutions of their native land, these West Indian pro- 
prietors cannot permit themselves to believe that the present system 
of misgovernment is to last for ever. They cannot think that it will 
be allowed to work out its dire results ; they hope and trust that 
the eyes of those in power at home will be opened to the real exist- 
ing state of things ; and that the voices of the many, and the really 
interested, are not to be silenced or disregarded for ever, because of 
the mis-statements of the few, who find it to be their interests to 
echo — no matter at what expense of consistency or of truth — the 
opinions of those to whom their statements are addressed. Thus it 
is that the great body of West Indian planters and proprietors have 
gone on, year after year, struggling against the difficulties with which 
they have had to contend. But it were a curious inquiry — one both 
painful and profitable — to inquire into the sacrifices at which the 
struggle has been kept up. It formed one of the arguments in favour 
of the Emancipation Bill of 1833, that it would improve the con- 
dition as well of the planter as of the slave. How has this promise 
been kept ? No doubt, the emancipation money went to relieve the 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 159 

estates that had been previously burdened with debt, and to relieve 
also the anxieties of many mortgages, who were previously some- 
what doubtful about the security on which their advances had been 
made. Nay, even the fact that their estates were relieved in this 
way from their former debts, operated injuriously as regards many 
of the proprietors of West Indian properties. 

At the time the emancipation money was paid, many of these es- 
tates were burdened so helplessly, and under such circumstances, 
that, for a present and immediate payment of two-thirds of the 
amount of the mortgage, the creditor who held it would have been 
glad to have given up his security altogether. Nay, in many cases 
creditors would have been well paid to have got settlement on these 
terms. An estate nominally valued at £ 50,000 was burdened with 
debt to the extent of £35,000; but the real selling value of the 
property was probably not much more than the amount of the mort- 
gage, and the holder of the security very probably would gladly have 
given some deduction from the amount of his bond, to have been 
put into possession of hard cash for the balance of it — at least he 
would have been so, had he foreseen the result of subsequent, legis- 
lation. But the Emancipation Act, with its attendant compensation, 
came ; and it being the principle of the statute that the compensation 
money should go, in the first place, to the wiping off the real debt 
on the burdened estates j the mortgagee found himself in possession 
of a present payment of one-half of his debt, with still the security 
of the whole estate for the payment of the other moiety. The effect 
of this partial payment of mortgages on estates, under the operation 
of the emancipation statute, coupled with the depreciation in the 
value of West Indian properties, consequent upon the actual working 
of that act, has thus led to a very strange state of things, and of 
feeling, in some of our West Indian possessions. I cannot better 
illustrate this than by giving the substance of an argument I once 
heard maintained by a professional friend, whose acquaintance I made 
in one of the Leeward Islands. Speaking of an actual case, in which 
he had been consulted, he told me that it was his intention to urge 
in court the plea that the mortgagee, seeking to foreclose, had no 
right to do so, for recovery of the amount or balance stated in the 
face of his mortgage. His reasoning, or that he purposed making 
use of, was this — You, the mortgagee, lent your £35,000, on my 
client's estate, at a time when you and he both believed it to be worth 
£ 50,000 ; and, in doing so, you acted on, and were solely influenced 
by that belief. But the Emancipation Act came ; and while, under 
its operation, you received some £ 10,000 or £ 15,000 of your debt, 
the other effect of it was to reduce the value of the whole estate to 
a sum not more than adequate for the payment of your balance. 
Seeing, then, that we both adventured on a principle or valuation 



160 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

whicli has turned out fallacious — seeing that the estate we mutually- 
supposed to be worth £ 50,000 has, through the effects of legislative 
interference, turned out to be worth not more than £ 20,000, why 
should I, the owner, be the sole loser, while you the mortgagee, 
should lose nothing at all ? The fallacy in such an argument is, of 
course, very obvious; and I doubt not but that my sharp-witted 
friend himself also saw it. But the fact, that such an argument was 
made use of by a professional man of ability, and that it met with 
acceptance from the party at a governor's table who heard it, affords 
an element for consideration^ in endeavouring to arrive at a correct 
estimate of the sentiments generally prevalent in the colonies them- 
selves, on the subject of the treatment they have received under the 
legislative measures of the mother country. 

While, however, in their hope of better things, the vast majority 
of the British planters in the West Indies have gone on struggling 
against the depreciating influences to which they have been exposed 
— and while I doubt not but that they, or the major number of them, 
will continue still to do so for perhaps many years to come, even 
though no legislative attempt should be made to arrest their down- 
ward progress — nay more, while even this very depression may, in 
illustration of the principle that " sweet are the uses of adversity," 
teach some of these planters an economy or frugality of living and 
of management they would not otherwise have practised — yet sure 
am I of two things, and these two things I would desire to impress 
on the minds of all who unite with me in the opinion that, without 
her colonies, England would be but a skeleton of her present self; 
and who, consequently, like me, desire that the prosperity of these 
colonies should be looked after, just as if they formed an integral 
part of the empire of Great Britain. The facts referred to are these : 
— In the first place, the evils predicated as likely to arise from ex- 
posing colonial sugar to an equal competition with foreign slave- 
grown sugar, have been felt in part already. In several of the colo- 
nies, estates formerly flourishing are now deserted, and are hastening 
back to a state of nature with all the luxuriant rankness of tropical 
vegetation. Free labour may possibly, in other circumstances, com- 
pete wich slave labour, even in sugar making ; but it certainly cannot 
do so with the means of labour at present to be had in the British 
West Indies — the colony of Barbadoes alone excepted. In the other 
colonies it has never been afforded a fair chance. In the second 
place, the same thing is now going on, and is evidencing its operation 
by the withdrawal of capital from the cultivation of the soil and 
from the manufacture of the juices produced from the cut cane. The 
inevitable result must be — if no interposing cause prevent — that in 
some ten, or it may perchance be twenty years, although I cannot 
think it can be so long, the sugar production of the British West 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 161 

Indian colonies will form no barrier in the way of a rise of pr'cei 
for the benefit of Brazil, or of the slave-employing colonies of Spain. 
This opinion will to some seem extravagant ; but I would that the 
question presently at issue between the British West Indian plant- 
ers and the home government could be brought to this arbitrament 
— could be determined by the former being brought to an assize, and 
challenged to the proof of the two specific positions. The desertion 
of estates, and the causes of such desertion, could be established by 
the evidence of their unfortunate owners — the only objection to their 
examination being the great amount of time that would be con- 
sumed in hearing the dispiriting statements of so many witnesses, 
speaking each from his own personal and dear-bought experience ; — 
while the continued operation of the same cause in the production of 
the same result, and the annual lessening of the number of acres 
devoted to cane cultivation, might be established — not only by the 
united testimonies of the West Indian planters and proprietors, but 
by the evidence of nearly every Governor who has held the reins of 
power in the West Indian colonies for the last four years. It has 
been already remarked that it was to be expected that these gentle- 
men, if not themselves thoroughly impressed with the wisdom of the 
present colonial policy, would at least do their utmost to contradict 
or controvert the tales of decadence and ruin which the West Indians 
have of late years been annually pouring forth. No doubt, neither 
governors nor governed could deny the extensive failures that have 
of late years been so common among West Indian merchants in this 
country, and which, it is notorious, have arisen from no other cause 
than the unexpected introduction of slave-grown produce to compete 
with the produce of those who are neither allowed to work their 
estates by means of slaves, nor provided with a sufficient supply of 
freemen wherewith to cultivate them, although the latter was un- 
questionably promised them. Neither could any candid man deny 
the evidence of back-going afforded by abandoned estates and desert- 
ed sugar-works — the former becoming overgrown with brushwood, 
with that rapidity which is characteristic of growth within the tro- 
pics, and the latter fast crumbling into ruin and decay. Such real 
evidence is not to be gainsayed. But what cannot be denied may 
sometimes be extenuated; and, instead of leaving the dry details to 
tell their own tale of blighted hopes and ruined expectations, any 
one, desirous of giving only a favourable account of matters, could 
point to grounds of hope — to collateral causes that may have aided 
in the production of unfortunate results — and to the removal of these 
minor causes as likely to lead to an amended state of matters. And, 
to some extent at least, this has been done by the governors of our 
West Indian possessions. So far as truth could justify, or as a 
ground of hope for the future exists, these gentlemen have been 

14* 



162 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

most assiduous in pointing out sources of consolation and of im- 
provement; and certainly the most cheering description of West 
Indian positions and prospects that can, without violation of truth, 
be given, are those contained in the able despatches and reports from 
such governors as Lord Harris, Cplonel Reid, Mr. Higginson, or 
Sir Charles Grey, &c., to be found in the pages of the Blue Books. 
And yet what do these reports bear? Do not one and all of them 
bear out the assertions I have advanced — that the consequence of 
the Sugar Duties Bill of 1846 has been to throw land out of culti- 
vation in the British colonies; and that this result is still progress- 
ing, and, if unchecked, must end in the serious diminution of the 
sugar production of the British West Indies ? In a despatch of 
Lord Harris, of 18th September 1847, after alluding to the decrease 
in production, and to the abandonment of estates, his Lordship 
says — " I do not hesitate to express to your Lordship my conviction, 
that if this colony (Trinidad) is not to be left to subside into a state 
of comparative barbarism, which would result from the ruin of its 
larger proprietors, some more than ordinary relief is necessary to 
support it in the contest which it, in common with the other British 
West Indian colonies, is now engaged in. Circumstanced as it is, / 
believe it incapahle of successfully competing in the British market 
with the produce of countries in which slavery is still permitted." 
Colonel Reid, in 1848, thus records his sentiments — "My opinion 
is, that sugar cultivation, by free labour, cannot yet withstand com- 
petition on equal terms, with slave labour, and that freedom should 
be nursed by protection for a considerable time to come." And 
again — " If there be no protection, the cultivation of sugar will be 
further given up in Granada, and it will dwindle in all the Wind- 
ward islands, excepting Barbadoes." It will be kept in view that 
Colonel Reid is only reporting as to the islands composing the Wind- 
ward group, and that his somewhat questionable exception, even, of 
Little England, (Barbadoes,) is on account of its excessive popula- 
tion making labour cheap, and thus enabling the planters in that 
island to hold head against the competition of the slaveholder. It is 
important that this be kept in view, as it bears upon the question of 
remedy, to be, in conclusion of this chapter, very briefly noticed. 

To the same effect, Governor-general Higginson, writing from, 
and mainly of, the populous and, as I have already shown, com- 
paratively prosperous island of Antigua, says, — " It must be con- 
ceded that, for obvious reasons, free-grown sugar can never yield so 
lucrative a return as that produced by foreign slaves." While 
with equal definiteness writes Sir Charles C. Grey from Jamaica, 
on 21st September, 1847, (and in various other despatches,) — 
"There is a sincere apprehension amongst the persons most 
thoroughly acquainted with the subject, that, at the present Lon- 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 163 

don prices of "West Indian sugar, and the present rate of duties, it 
will be impossible to carry on here, without loss and ruin, the cultiva- 
tion of sugar for exportation.'^ 

Sufficient as they are for the case I undertook to prove — abund- 
ant as they are to show, to the satisfaction of every unbiassed mind, 
that the ablest of the representatives of the crown of England, resi- 
dent in the West Indies, admit both the present desertion of 
estates, and its probable continuance and extension, unless some- 
thing be done to arrest its progress : — the passages I have quoted 
are far from being all that is contained, even in the despatches 
quoted from, to the same effect. Neither have these despatches 
been selected (any more than are the passages from them excerpted) 
with any degree of care ; both are taken almost at random. Nearly 
all the despatches from these governors to the Colonial Office, since 
1840, have borne evidence to the fact of W^est Indian decadence, 
and of the impossibility of the British West Indian planter, with 
the means of labour at present at his command, competing with the 
slave-owner of Brazil, Cuba, or Porto Bico. Does not such evi- 
dence establish the assertion that, unless the British planter be 
aided or protected in some way, the result must eventually be the 
withdrawal of the British colonies from the competition of the 
sugar market ? And when such result has been produced, what 
then becomes of the argument of ^^ cheap sugar ^7 — that argument 
by the use of which the people of England were reconciled to the 
adoption of a measure which has depressed the value of land in 
the British West Indian colonies far more than one half and in- 
creased the value of real estate in Cuba and Porto Rico fully one 
third. If any one doubts this, let him consult any capitalist 
acquainted with the subject, or let him inquire if, and on what 
terms, money can be raised on the security of a sugar estate, boil- 
ing-works, and distillery in Trinidad or Jamaica, and on a sugar 
plantation and an ingenio in Cuba. The result will more than 
confirm my assertion, and startle the incredulous inquirer not a 
little. 

But the passages above quoted from some of the despatches of the 
G overnors of the British West Indian possessions, remind me that 
there is yet another branch of this subject which ought not to be 
wholly overlooked, however shortly it may require to be noticed. 

We have hitherto been considering the subject exclusively in its 
application to the sugar consumers in this country, — solely in a 
selfish light, and in its relation to the question of cheap or dear 
sugar to the people of England. Bui Lord Harris is of opinion, 
that the lapsing of the fertile island of Trinidad into a state of bar- 
barism may be regarded as a not improbable event, if the present 
system be persevered in ; and Colonel Beid feels convinced " that, 



164 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

without protection, the most serious result would not be the loss of 
sugar ; but the consummation of the greatest act of human legisla- 
tion — the abolition of slavery — will be retarded, and perhaps en- 
dangered/^ Analogous passages, from the despatches of other 
governors, might be quoted ] and surely the fact that such men, 
so situated and so experienced, have deemed it not merely their 
province, but their duty, to lift up their warning — their almost 
prophetic voices — to that (xovernment of whom their appointments 
were held, in the way of caution against a continued perseverance 
in the Ministerial policy, is in itself one of the strongest facts that 
go to prove the existence of the danger which is here referred to. 
Will any man of sense and reason permit himself to doubt that, 
were the governors who penned these admirable and truth-telling 
despatches to be now appointed a commission, with power to legis- 
late for the West Indian colonies in their relationship to the mother 
country, their very first act would be to make a very serious inroad 
upon the principles of that legislation which influenced the Sugar 
Duties Bills of 1846 and 1848 ? It is impossible to doubt but that 
such would be the case ? And again, does not this in itself prove 
the necessity for the immediate adoption of remedial measures ? 
That a body of enlightened men — chosen because fit to govern in 
tropical climes — after residing for years in the society and midst 
the scenes of which they write, have (many of them, in the face of 
preconceived opinions, which retarded conviction) arrived at the 
conclusions, 1st. That slave-grown produce will drive free-grown 
produce out of the market altogether ) and 2d. That, if this be the 
issue, the British colonies will lapse into barbarism — appears to 
me to be the strongest of all possible reasons for urging the adop- 
tion of some measures of relief. If it be said that the statements 
of these governors is but testimony — evidence capable of being 
rebutted by contrary proof ; I answer — Be it so. But it is at least 
testimony omni exceptione major — the evidence of persons entitled 
to the very fullest belief — at all events, until an equal amount of 
unexceptionable testimony has been adduced on the other side of 
the question. Let it also be observed, that this testimony to West 
Indian decadence, thus drawn from despatches sent to the Grovern- 
ment, is altogether apart from, and independent of, the testimony 
of the British West Indian planters themselves — men who have 
been so often and so undeservedly accused of making a parade of 
their distress. 

And why should it be doubted, either that the non-profitable 
cultivation of a sugar estateB.and the unremunerative working of a 
boiling-house and distillery, should lead to their abandonment? 
or that the abandonment of the cultivation should lead to the laps- 
ing of the colonies into a state of worse than pristine barbarism ? 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 165 

The first is simply the operation of the law of self-preservation. 
Tropical agriculture, and sugar and rum-making, are not carried 
on by the British any more than by the Spanish planter as a 
luxury, or for his own gratification ; nor are these operations con- 
ducted save at very heavy annual outlay and expense. People will 
carry on a losing trade so long as previously made profits and capi- 
tal last, or as there is hope of the dawn of a brighter state of 
things. But the ceasing of the profits will sooner or later lead to 
the exhaustion of the capital ; and, there being no '^ star of hope'' 
seen in the horizon of the future, it is only in accordance with a 
principle of self-preservation, that the cultivation and the manu- 
facture should be eventually given up. 

And if the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and the manufacture 
and distillation of its juice be abandoned, what is there to induce 
the British colonists to remain in the West Indies ? Does any one 
imagine that it is from the love of a tropical climate, or of tropical 
scenery, that the European conducts his operations under the swel- 
tering heat of an almost vertical sun ? Does any one think that 
there is anything like a considerable body of the white population 
in the West Indies, who would remain in them one hour longer 
than they can help, if all hope of the profitable cultivation of these 
colonies were at an end ? If so, such person labours under a griev- 
ous misconception. There are many charming things to be seen 
and tasted within the tropics. Tropical nights are very lovely ; 
tropical trees are ofttimes very graceful ; some tropical dishes and 
fruits — turtle-soup and pine-apples in particular — are very deli- 
cious. But these, and all other tropical luxuries besides, would 
not sufiice to detain our enterprising fellow-countrymen or their 
fair companions. within the torrid zone, were it not that they have 
hitherto found it to be their interest to be there.. The fair lady of 
British birth, whom love or duty has caused to make the beautiful 
islands of the Western Archipelago her temporary home ; or her 
equally fair countrywoman of Creole origin, born of British parent- 
age but within the tropic line, may give an occasional shudder, and 
draw her shawl or cloak closer around her form, as she listens to 
or feels the blasts of a northern winter. But I am quite sure that 
I declare the sentiments of the great mass of the European inha- 
bitants of the British West Indies, when I say, that there is not 
one of them who would consent to exchange for ever the bracing 
influences and fond associations of Great Britain, for all the bright- 
ness of that tropic sun — 

'' Which scorches those it beams upon." 

Nay, more, I venture to assert, that the vast majority of the par- 



166 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

ties I refer to would not consent to remain in the West Indies one 
year longer than interest, duty, or necessity required. 

If there be any one who doubts this, let him introduce the topic 
on board a West Indian steamer, and among a party expatriating 
themselves from England, and as the steamer slowly progresses in 
her south-west course. And if it be imagined that it is the tender 
recollections of those ties they are leaving behind them, that so 
moves the whole party to confess their love for England as a place 
of permanent residence, let the inquirer observe how the eye flashes, 
and the cheek kindles, among the family circles in the best of the 
West Indian mansions, when the conversation turns upon the far- 
off home on English ground. No ! There is not, there cannot be, 
a doubt of the fact. So soon as the West Indian colonies cease to 
be valuable possessions for the culture of the sugar-cane and the 
manufacture of its juices into sugar and into rum, from that hour 
we may date the commencement of their abandonment as places of 
residence or colonization by Europeans. This may be predicated 
of all the islands in the Western Archipelago, whether they belong 
to England, France, Spain, Denmark, Holland, or Sweden. But 
the observation has a peculiar appositeness and propriety, when 
considered with reference to the feelings usually, and in the West 
Indies pre-eminently, entertained by British colonists towards the 
mother country. It has been remarked as frequently as justly that, 
great as England has been and is as a colonizing country, the fact 
of her being so has not proceeded from any dislike entertained by 
her emigrant children towards the land of their nativity. No colo- 
nists in the world carry abroad with them a greater love of home, 
more intense feelings of patriotism, or a larger amount of the amor 
patrice, than do the colonists that leave her shores for settlement 
on a distant strand. To prove this fact, examples might be selected 
almost from every quarter of the globe. As a general rule, the 
colonists of Great Britain sympathize in every home feeling. Of 
England they may truly say that — 

"Each flash of her genius their pathway enlightens, 
Every field she explores they are beckoned to tread ; 
Each laurel she gathers their future day brightens ; 
They rejoice with her living, and mourn with her dead." 

Of this patriotic feeling of our colonial fellow-subjects, towards 
the " queen of the islands" whence they have sprung, and with 
which they are connected, the traveller among the islands of the 
West Indian archipelago will have abundant and frequent evidence. 
^' Home" is the term universally applied to England by the white 
inhabitants of the British West Indian possessions. And in a 
periodical, oft-repeated visit to that " home," is to be found the 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 167 

most highly priced of all the British colonist's pleasures of memory 
and of hope. 

Impressed with these convictions^ I cannot suppose that any per- 
son acquainted either with West Indian climate, culture, and manu- 
facture, or versant in the feelings of the white and even the coloured 
population of the British colonies, will contradict my assertion — 
that the cessation of cane-cultivation in the British West Indies 
would eventuate in their total abandonment by their present pro- 
prietors. The change might be very gradual; most probably it 
would be so : but, if there be any soundness in the premises which 
have guided me thus far in my reasoning, it would certainly be very 
sure. And if the period so to be anticipated should ever come, in 
what state would it leave these at present noble possessions ? and 
what would then become of all that has been done, at such cost of 
life and treasure, to ameliorate the condition of the Negro race in 
the British West Indies ? To what state would the colonies them- 
selves be reduced ? Would any other nation be disposed to take up 
what England had thus thrown away ? Suppose England to permit 
this to be done, what people would be inclined to try so Quixotic an 
experiment — unless indeed under a return to a system, or a modified 
system, of slavery ? 

Is the Negro population of the West Indies yet in a fit state for 
self-government? With St. Domingo experience ringing in his 
ears, he would be a bold man who would express much confidence in 
an afiirmative answer to this question. And even though such 
answer could be with confidence given, on what principle is it ex- 
pected that Negroes, under Negro domination, would work with ad- 
vantage that soil which British energy had given up in despair ? It 
were bootless, however, to prosecute the subject further; it is sufii- 
cient to point attention to the possibility of such events resulting 
from a continued perseverance in a certain line of policy. If there 
be any reasonable amount of truth in the statements which governors, 
planters, professional residents, and occasional visitors have, for the 
last four years, been pouring forth, as to the practical effects pro- 
duced by British legislation on the cultivation of the sugar-cane in 
England's noble colonial possessions in the West Indies, the possi- 
bility becomes a probability. The conclusion is so manifest that 
there seems to be no mode of evading it, save by a denial of the 
premises on which it is based. Whether there are grounds on which 
such a denial can be supported, is a question that will be answered 
by each one according to his leanings, or to his views of the evidence. 
The views recorded in this chapter are those formed on personal and 
dispassionate observation ; and, midst the distrust incident to pro- 
mulgating opinions on a question involving great interests, and to 
the expiscation and settlement of which great — the greatest — talents 



168 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

have been devoted, it certainly gratifies and encourages tlie writer 
not a little to observe that, however ingenious, and however ably 
advocated, may have been the opinions of an opposite nature, the 
great majority of those men who have visited the West Indies, and 
who are practically acquainted with West Indian affairs, have ex- 
pressed opinions of a confirmatory nature — have done so whatever 
may have been the nature of their business, or the objects of their 
visit. 

But it may be said that all the preceding argument is based upon 
an assumption. I admit that it is so. It is acknowledged that, 
throughout the preceding reasoning — or rather, as the foundation of 
that reasoning — it has been assumed that, in the present state of the 
labour market in the British West Indies, the produce of free labour 
cannot compete loith that of slave labour, as regards the cost of pro- 
duction. In other words, I have reasoned on the assumption that 
the oft-quoted and much-abused dictum, that free labour is as cheap 
as slave labour, has been found to be fallacious when applied to 
sugar-cultivation within the tropics. It is said that this has been 
taken for granted — and I would deem it a reprehensible waste of my 
reader's time to occupy it by proving at length a position so clear as 
is the one thus assumed. It is demonstrated by the experience of 
the past — particularly by that of the last four years; and a. very 
brief summary of facts will show that it is so. 

The duties at present exigible in G-reat Britain, on foreign and 
colonial sugar, are as follows : — 

FOEEIGN. 

White clayed sugar, or equal thereto, . 19s. lOd. per cwt. 

Brown clayed sugar, or equal thereto, . 18s. 6d. " 

Muscovado, or not equal to brown clayed, 17s, Od. " 

COLONIAL. 

WhXtQ clayed or equal thereto, . . 14s. Od. " 
Muscovado, or not equal to white clayed, 12s. Od. " 

On a general view of this table, it would seem that, at present, there 
is a protective duty of nearly 6s. per hundredweight in favour of the 
produce of British colonies. But in operation it is not so; and that 
not merely because the greater part of the foreign slave-grown sugar, 
imported into this country, is generally of relatively higher value 
than the sugar brought from our own colonies, (so much more 
valuable that, quantity considered, foreign and colonial sugar may 
even at present be considered to be on an equality,) but also because 
there are three scales of duty applicable to foreign sugars, while 
there are only two that apply to colonial. The great mass of the 
foreign sugars brought into England for consumption, is of the kind 
called " brown clayed, or equal thereto," which at present (in March 
1850) pays a duty of 18s. 6d. per cwt.; and, if the foreign sugar 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 169 

imported does not come quite up to that standard, it is admitted as 
foreign muscovado, &c., at a duty of 17s. per cwt. Now this foreign 
sugar, admitted at 17s. per cwt. (nearly the whole of it slave-grown) 
comes into competition with the colonial muscovado, which pays a 
duty of 12s. per cwt. The differential duty, therefore, cannot be 
fairly called more than 5s. per cwt. — a difference, quality consider- 
ed, which practically amounts to no protection at all. A large quan- 
tity of the British colonial sugar imported into Great Britain, and 
particularly much of that brought from the West Indies, is of an 
inferior kind; and, even were the present state of things to con- 
tinue, it seems obvious that it would be an equitable advantage to 
the British colonist, were there a third and a lower scale of duty, 
applicable to a third and an inferior description of colonial sugar. 

But to return to the general argument — While the duties on the 
sugar imported into Great Britain are for the present as they have 
been above-stated, they are in a transition state. So far as it is dif- 
ferential, the duty will in a short time be equalized. On 5th July, 
1851, the duty on British plantation sugar will be reduced to 10s. 
per cwt., but, at the same time, the duty on foreign brown clayed 
sugar will be reduced to 15s. 6d. per cwt. ; and thereafter, by a 
gradually descending scale, this differential duty will annually lessen 
until 3d July, 1854, when it will disappear altogether, and the 
colonial and foreign sugars (slave-grown as well as free-grown) will 
then be admitted at the uniform and equal rate of 10s. per cwt. 
What effect an approximation to this state of things has already had, 
and what effect its complete realization must necessarily have on 
British interests, on sugar cultivation in the British West Indies, 
and on the destinies of the African race, enslaved and free, may be 
gathered from the following facts : — 

One of the consequences which resulted from the emancipation of 
the slaves, in the British West Indian possessions, was, to decrease 
the sugar production in them, and to increase it in Cuba and Porto 
Bico. This was the case, even while foreign sugars were virtually 
excluded from the English market. The fact of the decrease in the 
British colonies appears from statistics already given. In 1834, the 
production was above 190,000 tons. Next year the quantity pro- 
duced was less ; and it continued to fall off till 1841, when it was 
so low as 107,500 tons. Since 1841 it has improved ; and last 
year, the quantity exported from the British West Indies was 
142,240 tons, exclusive of molasses. But it has never reached the 
average production previous to emancipation, notwithstanding that 
the increase of the sugar-consuming population has greatly increased 
the demand. 

Now, while such has been one of the consequences of the Eman- 
cipation Act upon the British West Indian colonies, what has been 

15 



170 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

its results in the colonies of Spain — that country whose colonial 
dependencies, aided by Brazil, produce that slave-grown sugar, which 
is the great competitor of free-grown produce in the markets of 
Europe ? Here we are presented with a very different state of mat- 
ters. Since 1843, Cuba and Porto Kico have more than trebled 
their productions. In 1828, they exported only 93,000 tons of 
sugar; in 1847 they exported 305,000 tons- But here let me 
anticipate an objection to the application, of the fact last stated, as 
aiding the argument in hand. It may be seen, that the great increase 
in the production of sugar in Cuba and Porto Eico, in 1847, was 
mainly owing to the impetus given to the cultivation in these islands, 
by the English Sugar Duties Bill of 1846. No doubt such is the 
fact ; but, instead of militating against it, the fact assists the present 
reasoning. It shows that slave labour in the tropics is so much 
cheaper than free labour, that the former can afford to give the latter 
great seeming advantages, and yet undersell it ; and, apart from 
this, it points attention to the true cause why, since Emancipation, 
sugar production has fallen off in the British colonial possessions — 
that cause being the felt deficiency in the means of labour. . . . 
For be it remembered that it is only in its connexion with the pre- 
sent condition of the labour market in the British West Indies, that 
it is said that ^' free labour cannot compete with slave labour.^^ In- 
deed, it is here that the essence of the great West Indian question 
may be said to lie. As an abstract proposition, I do not doubt, or 
rather I should be sorry to doubt, the equality, nay, the superiority 
of the labour of freemen over the tasked labour of slaves. But it 
is the circumstance which makes the case of the British West Indian 
planter an exceptional case — a casus improvisus in free-trade legisla- 
tion, that, while a large portion of the '^ power'^ he had, wherewith 
to conduct his agricultural and manufacturing operations, has been 
taken from him, no adequate attempt has been made to redeem the 
promise that a substitute for it would be provided. 

Nor can this result surprise any one acquainted, even in a slight 
degree, with slave labour and free labour within the tropic line. The 
Emancipation Act of 1843 diminished the production of the British 
colonies, because it lessened the number of the labourers who tilled 
the fields and conducted the manufacturing operations. And the 
same statute, coupled with the Sugar Duties Act of 1846, increased 
the production of Cuba, Porto Rico, &c., because, while they opened 
up to the planters in these fertile islands an extensive new market 
for their produce, they had the means of coercing their existing 
labourers to extra, and, unfortunately, ofttimes to excessive exertion, 
and also of getting, from without, such additional workmen as it 
niight be their interest to purchase or employ. Both results were 
the most natural that could be conceived. Before emancipation, 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 171 

there was no exuberance of supply in the labour market of the 
British colonies. The slaves were all profitably engaged. But the 
gradual consequence of that measure was the withdrawal of a por- 
tion of the labourers to other pursuits and occupations. The produc- 
tion, therefore, fell off. But the demand for the article produced 
continued, and was increasing. Whence, then, was that demand to 
be thereafter supplied, if not from those differently situated proprie- 
tors whose means of labour continued, and who had opportunity of 
adding to them to any extent expedient or necessary ? The duty, 
amounting to a prohibition, was the only obstacle : that removed, 
the result was plain — and it as plainly was the one that might have 
been predicted from the beginning. 

The argument would be incomplete, were notice not taken of the 
fact that there is, in the very nature of cane cultivation and sugar- 
making in the tropics, something which places the agriculturist or 
manufacturer, who is imperfectly supplied with workpeople, or 
who has an imperfect control over them, at a peculiar disadvan- 
tage, when he is called on to compete with such proprietors as can 
command a sufficient amount of labour at the time it is required. 
The planting season and crop-time are the two periods of the year 
in which the farmer and sugar-maker, within the tropics, require 
special aid. It is literally true that, at these seasons, he can 
scarcely have too many labourers. At other times he may com- 
pensate for the want of labour in one point of his operations, 
by drawing it from another ; but, during the seasons of planting 
and of sugar-making, he cannot proceed with too great rapidity. 
Hence it is that, in Cuba and Porto Bico, when cane-cutting is 
once commenced, it and the consequent operations in the boiling- 
house are carried on without intermission, till the whole crop is 
secured and manufactured into sugar — the slaves working in re- 
lays or gangs, each for about six hours at a time. Great advan- 
tages are thus secured as regards quantity and quality of production 
and economy of working. The canes are cut at the proper time. 
No time is lost in securing all the juice that can be extracted from 
them by the mill ; and, the latter being kept continuously going, 
there is not only a plentiful stream of liquor for the operations of 
the boiling-house, but (and perhaps this is one of the greatest ad- 
vantages of getting over ^' crop-time^' as speedily as possible) the 
conduits are not allowed to run dry, and perchance to " sour," 
to the injury of the whole manufacture, or of a considerable part 
of it. 

But, from the cause already assigned — from the diminution in 
the number of the labourers for the cane-field, or for the mill and 
boiling-house — such desirable rapidity and continuity of operations 
is not generally practicable in the British plantations. This posi- 



172 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

tion could be illustrated by the mention of many very strong in- 
stances of injury and expense, resulting from the operations being 
delayed through the deficiency of labour or the difficulty of getting 
the Negroes to work. I prefer, however, narrating an illustrative 
incident, which occurred under my own observation : it is a case 
somewhat in point ; and if it wants the power of being an extreme 
case, it has at least the claim of being fact, meipso teste. 
, When riding in the island of Antigua with my friend Mr. Mar- 
tin, he observed that the windmill on one of his estates had sud- 
denly ceased to revolve. On inquiry at the sugar-works, it was 
ascertained that the cause of cessation was a deficiency in the sup- 
ply of canes. Aware that, if his arrangements had been duly 
carried out, this should not have occurred, Mr. Martin immedi- 
ately proceeded to the cane-field, at which the reapers, or rather 
'^ cutters," were at work. There he learned the nature of the ob- 
stacle which was interrupting the proceedings at the mill ; white I 
was not a little interested, and somewhat amused, by the discussion 
which ensued between my friend and the Negro overseer, relative 
to the subject which had brought us to the field. Like the other 
proprietors on the island, Mr. Martin had succeeded in getting the 
wages of the field labourers reduced to about three-fourths of what 
they had been during the preceding year. But, during crop-time 
of that preceding year. Sambo had been in use to cut four loads 
of canes each working-day, and his reasoning now was, that, as his 
wages had been reduced one-fourth, it was right and fair that his 
work should diminish in an equal ratio — a position to which he 
stuck with no little pertinacity, and defended with no little inge- 
nuity. Intimately acquainted with Negro character, the intelli- 
gent proprietor of the estate gratified the " Negro love for talk 
with massa," by arguing with his people on the unreasonableness 
of supposing that, while " slave competition " compelled him to 
lower wages one-fourth, the reduction would benefit either him or 
them, if the work done was lessened to an equal extent ; and his 
argument, (coupled with promise of additional pay for extra work 
beyond the four loads,) produced the desired result, and enabled 
the operations of the mill and of the boiling-house to be immedi- 
ately resumed. 

Apart, therefore, from the question of wages, (which is a very 
obvious one,) the free cultivator of the British possessions in the 
West Indian Archipelago labours under a disadvantage in conduct- 
ing his operations, as compared with the slave cultivator of Cuba, 
Porto Kico, or Brasil. 

But not to exhaust the patience of the reader, or to allow this 
Chapter to extend beyond proper and prescribed limits, I must 
now hasten to a conclusion, by devoting a few pages to the consi- 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 173 

deration of the remedies that ought to be, or that may be, applied 
towards the alleviation or the removal of West Indian distress. To 
prevent misconceptionj the remarks to be made on this important 
branch of the subject are prefaced with the two following observa- 
tions : — In the first place, it were only prejudice to deny that the 
question is one which is attended with many and serious dijB&cul- 
ties. Audi alteram partem is a principle of wise legislation, as 
well as of judicial proceedure ; and, amid the conflicting claims 
created by the multiplied ramifications of British commerce and 
British interests, it is no easy matter for the legislature to deter- 
mine what course to pursue for the attainment of the desired end 
— even after the conclusion has been arrived at, that national faith 
with the West Indian proprietors has not been kept, that great in- 
justice has been done them, and that they have been unfairly ex- 
posed to a ruinous competition, the final issue of which is likely to 
defeat the very object for which it has been permitted. But 
though the road which leads to it be intricate and difficult, the end, 
when arrived at, is satisfactory and clear. Though it be true that 
here, as in most other cases of wrong and rectification, it has been 
easier to point to the injury than to the means or mode of cure, 
there are no parts of the observations recorded in this Chapter on 
this great national question, of the soundness of which a stronger 
opinion is entertained by the writer, than those in which, in as few 
words as possible, he will now record the opinions to which his 
review of the subject has brought him, regarding the course to be 
pursued in order most effectually and permanently to cheapen the 
price of sugar ; to do justice to the West Indian colonists ; to re- 
suscitate the British possessions in the Western Archipelago ; and 
to suppress the slave trade and slavery all over the world. 

In the second place, while the measures to be suggested, and to 
some extent advocated, are those which appear most obviously requi- 
site for the realisation of the objects above stated, and while they ad- 
mittedly involve the abnegation of the policy which dictated the legis- 
lation of 1846 and 1848, on the question of the sugar duties, it is 
not asserted either that there are no other measures of effectual and 
permanent relief, or that some means of alleviation may not be sug- 
gested, consistently even with the preservation, in its integrity, of the 
principles of the existing acts. No pretension is made to the pro- 
mulgation, and much less to the discovery, of a panacea for West 
Indian distress. The remedial measures to be suggested are advo- 
cated simply because, of many, they appear to the writer to be the 
most practicable, the most intermediate between extremes, and the 
most consistent with the true interests of the home consumer as well 
as of the colonial producer ; and even should the legislature, in its 
wisdom, resolve to adhere to the principle of the existing statutes, 

15* 



174 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

there are yet, in such measures as an extension of the period of their 
application, and the introduction of a third and lower scale of duty 
for the importation of a third and lower description of colonial sugar, 
and the allowing the use of molasses as well as of sugar in distille- 
ries and breweries, (to the improvement of spirits and malt liquors, 
and the cheapening of bread,) means whereby much may be done to 
ward off and procrastinate, if they do not prevent, the fatal issue of 
those measures which have so prostrated the British West Indian 
colonies. Moreover, there is not merely a possibility, but even a 
probability, of some event ere long occurring which may bring sud- 
denly to a termination — perhaps to a bloody one — the existence of 
slavery in the colonial dependencies of Spain in the West Indian 
Archipelago. The conspiracy at Matanzas, (in Cuba,) of 1844, is 
pregnant with important lessons ; and the chances of repetition of 
some such tragedy, with the important difference of an opposite re- 
sult, will not be lost sight of by the student of British West Indian 
interests, or indeed by any one desirous of taking, on this really mo- 
mentous question, a view as removed from despondence or despair 
on the one side, as from ill-founded expectation or credulity on the 
other. 

Introduced and qualified by these preliminary observations, the 
following are advocated as the measures most practicable, and most 
likely to be available, for the permanent removal of the distress 
which now extends its depressing influences over the British posses- 
sions in the West Indies. 

If I have been correct in affirming that there is at present, in these 
colonies, a retrograde movement, as regards prosperity, culture, and 
civilisation, then assuredly must I also be right in asserting, that the 
first and the most obvious measure to arrest the back-going, is an 
immediate resolution to extend the duration of the differential duties. 
But if, on the other hand, there be soundness in the view, that the 
cause of depression and retrogression is one which is remediable, 
then as certainly may the period of extension be limited to the time 
necessary for the effectual carrying out of those means in the use of 
which a sufficient cure is to be found. Combining these principles, 
the result arrived at is, that an extension of the protective duty for 
ten years longer would, if accompanied by other measures, suffice, 
not only to alleviate West Indian distress, but to remove the causes 
of it. 

That there was justice in, or necessity for, a differential duty in 
favour of British colonial sugar, was conceded in 1846, by many 
even of that body in this country who arrogate to themselves the 
title of " the Free-trade party •/' and the statutes now in operation 
are in part framed in accordance with that admission. But, if this 
justice or necessity existed in 1846 or 1848, can it be with truth 



BRITISH WEST INFiES. 175 

affirmed that it does not exist in 1850 ? Matters certainly have not 
improved in the British colonies in the Western seas, within the last 
four years. On the. contrary, and in many respects, they have dete- 
riorated. They have retrograded with a rapidity which is most ap- 
palling to those best acquainted with West Indian affairs ; nay, this 
backgoing now threatens to engulf interests which, in 1846, seemed 
remote from its operations. Nor can matters improve in the British 
colonies in the Western Archipelago until, 

In the next place, the amount of the differential duty between 
slave-grown and free-grown sugm- is increased to about 12s. per cwt. 
This, no doubt, involves a change both in the amount and on the 
basis of the protective duty. But a change on both seems expedient, 
if not essential. As regards amount, it appears plain that, if there 
is to be any protective duty at all, it cannot wisely be made less than 
that which will be sufficient — sufficient to stimulate to an increase in 
colonial production. Now, the result of all the consideration I have 
been able to give this subject is, that, looking to matters as they are, 
a smaller differential duty than 12s. would not secure the wished-for 
result. Any smaller increase would not suffice for protection to 
British interests, while it might stimulate to increased exertion on 
the part of foreigners, to retain the vantage ground they now occupy 
in the British market. The details which go to the formation of this 
opinion, are to be found in the preceding remarks on the compara- 
tive cheapness of slave-grown over free-grown commodities, and the 
relative superiority in value of slave-produced over free-produced 
sugars ; a repetition of these is unnecessary. Aware of the objec- 
tions to changing the principle of the differential duty, and altering 
it as now proposed, the above-stated position is maintained in a full 
knowledge of the argument, that such change would tend to encou- 
rage smuggling ; and it is so mainly on the ground that the mainten- 
ance of a clear distinction, between slave and free produce, is the 
most powerful weapon philanthropy can wield j and that the risk of 
occasional, or even of frequent cases of evasion, does not furnish a 
sufficient reason for departing from that grand line of beneficent 
policy on which G-reat Britain first adventured, when in 1807 she 
passed the world-renowned act of abolition — that statute which struck 
the first blow for liberating the slave from his fetters, and in further- 
ance of which our noble country has since made such lavish expendi- 
ture of treasure and blood. 

If the grounds upon which an increase of the differential duty is 
advocated, do not sufficiently appear from what has been already 
written, as to the deficiency of the means of labour in the British 
West Indies, the consequent comparative cheapness of slave over free 
labour cultivation, the reasons why these causes are more operative 
in the tropics than they would be in more northern climes, and the 



X76 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

admissions of the slaveholders themselves as to the nature and extent 
of the advantages they enjoy, — repetition here would not avail to 
make them more apparent or convincing. The amount stated is 
required, and it seems the lowest that would suffice; while it would 
not, or at least would not necessarily, (for, in all matters involving 
a change in the rate of a duty, while necessary results may be calcu- 
lated, actual ones are beyond our reach,) involve an increase in the 
price of sugar to the consumer greater than would be caused by a 
very moderate enhancement of the present price. When it is kept 
in view that the object of submitting to some such temporary advance 
is the maintenance of national faith, and the alleviation of West 
Indian distress, and the preservation of these colonies — not only as 
colonies, but as sugar-supplying countries — it will surely not be 
thought by any one that the object in view is unworthy of the sacri- 
fice, if a sacrifice it can be called. I have said temporary advance, 
for it is not contemplated that such differential duty should be per- 
manent : on the principles already at some length adverted to, it is 
unnecessary that it should be so. 

If to the measures above indicated there were added a vigorous, 
well-directed effort to promote immigration of free labourers from 
the shores of Africa, such immigration would redeem something like 
a' national obligation ; and under its ameliorating influences, the 
British West Indian possessions would, ere the expiry of the pro- 
posed protective period, be in a situation to compete with any sugar- 
producing country in the world. This would be the case even were 
the abolition of slavery, in the territories of Spain and of Brazil, 
indefinitely protracted or hopelessly postponed. Let the person who 
questions the accuracy of this opinion, inquire why it is that the 
island of Barbadoes is in so different a position from that of her 
sister colonies — why it is that Colonel Beid, in his graphic, truth- 
telling description, makes special exception of " Little England,^' 
when writing of the Windward group? It is not said that free 
labour in the tropics is as cheap as slave labour, in all respects, or as 
regards every particular ; but it is said that the difference is not so 
great as to place the slave-owner on an unapproachable vantage 
ground — provided al-ways the supply of the one kind be as plentiful 
as that of the other : and in evidence of this Barbadoes is referred 
to, in exclusion of further argument. 

The question of African immigration — the modus operandi — the 
appliances for conducting it — or the national guarantees which ought 
to form the basis of it — involve questions too important and too 
extensive to be here discussed. Much has lately been written upon 
them ; and it is not supposed that it will now be disputed, by any 
one who has given attention to the subject, that, while Africa is the 
field to which the West Indians naturally look for a supply of 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 177 

labourers, a system of free immigration from that vast continent to 
the British colonies in the Western Archipelago — conducted under 
the guarantee of Britain's good faith — would confer a great boon, as 
well on the Africans so conveyed from the one land to the other, as 
on the tropical agriculturist who might afterwards employ them. 

But while my space compels me to omit the evidence * which 
relates to the practicability, philanthropy, and efficiency of emigra- 
tion from Africa, as a means of cure for the evils affecting the labour 
market in the British West Indies, I can, as the result of personal 
observation, vouch for the cordiality of the reception which such 
emigrants would receive, were they provided with the means of so 
transporting themselves. Being in one of the Leeward Islands in 
1849, when a vessel arrived having a number of African labourers 
on board, an opportunity was offered me of observing both the anxiety 
of the planters to secure their services, and the attention given to the 
promotion of their health and comfort. These people very speedily 
adapted themselves to the peaceful occupations of their new homes, 
in a congenial clime. Many months afterwards I was rejoiced to 
learn, from one of the most influential planters in the island, that 
these emigrant labourers were amongst the best workpeople which 
the colony at the time contained. 

But whence, it may be asked, are the pecuniary means for this 
emigration to come ? The financial is always the most difficult part 
of every practical question. But while it is very difficult, that very 
fact makes it very important 3 the preceding observations, therefore, 
would be defective, were they not fittingly terminated by some 
remarks on the monetary branch of the present inquiry. 

There are two sources whence the national part of the expense of 
African emigration might be provided : these are — the sums now 
annually expended on the slave squadron, and the balance of the 
compensation money. Some, even among those who have considered 
the question, and who may otherwise be favourably disposed to the 
adoption of the writer's views, will hesitate to acknowledge any 
acquiescence in this opinion; but it is conceived that a few sen- 
tences will suffice to prove both its justice and its expediency. 

The squadron for the prevention of the slave trade, while it is the 
last remaining, so it is the most emphatic of Great Britain's numer- 
ous manifestations of her detestation of slavery. It may then be 
naturally enough asked how, and with what consistency, a writer 
who advocates a return to measures that tend to repress slave pro- 
duction, can advocate the abandonment of one to which such an 
observation applies. Now I apprehend that a sufficient answer to 

* The reader will find a judicious exposition of the evidence on this subject in 
a pamphlet entitled Effects of an Alteration in the Sugar Duties, ^c, by my friend 
Mr. M'Gregor Laird. London: 1844. Effingham Wilson. 



178 BRITISH WEST INDIES. 

this argument is to be found in discriminating between measures 
effectual and measures ineffectual; and between the slave squadron 
as an auxiliary measure — while British legislation was otherwise 
consistent with its existence — and that squadron as a preventive 
cheeky standing by itself, when the scope and policy of English 
legislation on the sugar question has been entirely changed. So 
long as England discountenanced production by means of slaves, 
there was consistency in attempting to prevent other countries get- 
ting slaves wherewith to cultivate their lands. But consistency and 
entireness of policy was lost, when the statute of 1846 passed into 
a law. Thereafter we have been holding out a bonus on slave pro- 
duction, while, by the preventive squadron, we have been trying to 
counteract the effect of the temptation. To illustrate the argument 
by a parallel case, there was a time when British legislation pre- 
vented the emigration of the artisan ; and then, consistently enough, 
it also prohibited the exportation of certain kinds of machinery 
which the artisan made. The first branch of this consistent system 
of unwise law was first abrogated, and in a brief space it became 
evident, that the sooner the second branch of it was wiped out of 
the statute book the better. So it is with the laws relative to slaves 
and slave produce. As long as we discountenanced and refused the 
latter, so long could we consistently, and with hope of success, inter- 
fere by treaty and preventive squadrons, to put a stop to the former; 
but when the bill of 1846 became a law, the consistency of the 
national policy departed with the system which it displaced. 

Again, the argument for or against the maintenance of the slave 
squadron on the African coast, hangs entirely on the question of 
efficiency or non-efficiency. An inefficient check only aggravates 
the evil it is intended to prevent; and in the case of the slave trade, 
the aggravation becomes doubly deplorable from the excessive sacri- 
fice of human life which is one of its effects. Before the slave trade 
was declared to be piracy — when it was a legal thing for the white 
savage to rob and sell his fellow-men — the mortality of the ^^ middle 
passage " was greatly less than it has been since that event. At 
all times the slave trade has been productive of an appalling waste 
of human life. Anterior to the attempt to suppress it by treaty 
and by squadron, the mortality was from 10 to 15 per cent of the 
numbers shipped; it has since risen to 33 per cent — the harrowing 
increase being caused by the crowding of the miserable cargo on 
board vessels built small, low, and narrow, and with little regard to 
anything save their sailing powers. The fact that it has been pro- 
ductive of this consequence, is in itself sufficient to prove the insuf- 
ficiency of the " blockading check.^^ But its insufficiency is a matter 
of notoriety, and even now it is being brought prominently before 
the attention of the British public and legislature, in the petitions 



BRITISH WEST INDIES. 179 

presented to Parliament by Jamaica, St. Kitt's, and others of our 
West Indian Colonies. But is it possible to make this check au 
efficacious one ? There are many who maintain that it is not, and, 
in a word, I confess myself a reluctant convert to that opinion. 
Looking to the fact that a blockade of the African coast, to be effec- 
tual for the suppression of the slave trade, must extend for a length 
of 6000 miles and more, it does seem to be visionary to expect the 
suppression of the traffic in human flesh simply by the presence, on 
the African coast, of a naval armament — and that particularly now, 
when, by our own great demand for slave-produced sugar, molasses, 
and rum, we are presenting a continuously operative inducement to 
encounter the hazard of the middle passage, and run the gauntlet 
through our ships of war. No doubt something — nay much — 
might be done by giving to the courts of mixed commission greater 
authority and more extended power ; but it seems the teaching of a 
dear-bought experience that, with all appliances, we need not hope 
that, by slave treaties and slave squadrons alone, we will ever suc- 
ceed in effectually putting an end to the multiplied horrors of that 
greatest production of 

" Man's inhumanity to man," 

the accursed slave trade. 

Such are some of the grounds upon which the withdrawal of the 
slave squadron, and the appropriation for a few years of its annual 
costs to the promotion of free immigration into the British West 
Indian colonies from the continent of Africa, is placed prominently 
among the measures for the removal of West Indian depression and 
distress. Be it remembered, that the withdrawal of this hitherto 
notoriously inefficient preventive measure, is only advocated in con- 
nexion with the re-establishment of a less costly, but infinitely more 
effectual one; and were the squadron removed, there could not 
surely be a wiser or a more appropriate application of the moneys 
thereby saved, than to the adoption of a measure which will retain 
our own sugar-producing colonies, and eventually tend to that state 
of things under which it can alone be truly said, "that free-labour 
is as cheap as slave-labour." So soon as that issue is arrived at, 
then, and not till then, (unless some unforeseen contingency occur,) 
will the time arrive when cultivation by means of slaves will be 
abandoned as an unnecessary, because a profitless, violation of the 
rights of man. 

But, apart from the above-stated method of providing the means 
for enabling the British colonists successfully to compete with the 
subjects or colonists of those countries where slave ci^tivatiou is 
legalised and encouraged, there is the other source of provision — 
viz., the balance of the compensation money. In a former part of 



180 CUBA TO MOBILE. 

this chapter the fact was referred to, that, of the £20,000,000 
promised, only £18,669,401 10s. 7d. has been yet paid. The 
remaining £1,330,598 9s. 5d. yet stands as an unexpended balance. 
There are difficulties in the way of appropriating this sum, or any 
part of it, to a purpose dififerent from — though collateral to — that 
for which it was originally designed, but there are no such diffi- 
culties as cannot be overcome by a British statute. 

Having now detained my reader longer on this subject than I 
originally either desired or intended, I now take leave of it, with 
the concluding observation, that if the results, which time only can 
develop, should go to falsify any or all of the preceding observa- 
tions, in so far as they are prophetic of evil to the British colonial 
possessions in the West Indian Archipelago, no one will more 
heartily rejoice in that issue than will the writer, who has commit- 
ted such prognostications to the press. A sense of expediency, as 
well as of justice, has been his guide in making his remarks; and 
if they do not appear to others so conclusive as they seem to him- 
self, he can only say, in language before used, by other and abler 
writers, 

" What is writ is writ, would it were worthier." 



CHAPTER IX. 



"Hail Columbia!" 

"United States, your banner waves, 
Two emblems — one of fame." 

Campbeix. 



The sail from Cuba down the Grulf of Mexico to Mobile Point, on 
the great continent of North America, a distance of about five hun- 
dred and fifty miles, is performed by the steam-ships in somewhere 
under two days and a half; and when the weather is fine, as it gene- 
rally is, a more agreeable sea- voyage is almost nowhere to be found. 
At the time when I performed it, in the R. M. steam-ship Severn, 
the English steamers did not proceed further than Mobile Point, 
whence to the town of Mobile, a distance of some twenty miles, the 
passengers were conveyed by a small river steamer. At the period 
referred to, the arrangements of the British West Indian Steam 
Packet Company, in some of their operations, were in their infancy 
— the former place of the steamer's call having been New Orleans. 
But if matters continued as they then were, (in 1849,) there is much 
reason, as \^11 as room, for improvement. It is certainly not very 
comfortable for any traveller, and particularly for ladies and invalids, 
to be roused from sleep at midnight, and called on to disembark. 



APPROACH TO AMERICA. 181 

during a rough night, from the large steam-ship into the small, 
miserable little screw-propelled steam-boat, into which we were tran- 
shipped at the mouth of the Mobile river. The charge, too — three 
dollars a-head for conveying the passengers from Mobile Point to the 
town of Mobile in the river steam-boat — seems excessive, particularly 
to those accustomed to the very moderate fares exacted in the steam- 
ers, or rather steam-ships, of the United States. It was, therefore, 
not without reason that there was much grumbling at such arrange- 
ments on the part of my fellow-passengers and myself. 

Observing that the cabin-lights remained unquenched beyond the 
usual hour for " turning in,'^ and also some other prognostications of 
a coming change, I had a presentiment that we might be called upon 
to leave the ship (which would then steam onward across the Gulf 
of Mexico) ere morning dawned. Therefore my preparations were 
made for such contingency, and with some Spanish fellow-passengers 
I was " sitting up,'^ waiting the course of events. Several of my com- 
patriots had, however, made up their minds to remaining on board 
the steam-ship till daybreak at least, and, animated by such vain ex- 
pectations, had, so soon as the ship passed into smooth water under 
the " lee of the land,^^ made themselves comfortable for the night in 
their circumscribed " state rooms." These voyagers were, as might 
have been supposed, the chief malcontents. But the disaffection was 
general. It was an ill-arranged affair ; and, if the system be not yet 
amended, it certainly requires very much to be so. The matter 
might very easily be more comfortably and more economically 
arranged. There are numerous excellent steamers sailing between 
Mobile and New Orleans at very moderate fares ; and, by an arrange- 
ment with the owner or master of one or other of the steamers, or 
with some other of the Mobile steam-boat proprietors, the English 
company might very easily secure much greater comfort, at a much 
more moderate rate, for the numerous voyagers of all countries who 
patronise their steam-ships, and who, in this age of competition, can 
only be expected to continue so to do, if due attention be paid to 
their convenience and comfort. 

The approach to that part of the coast of North America where 
Mobile river debouches, presents no features of attraction ; low, flat, 
and dreary are its prevailing characteristics. It must also be of 
very dangerous navigation, and, even as we approached, we saw a 
large ship of about 700 tons burthen lying stranded on a sand-bank, 
and with the sea breaking over her at each return of the wave. She 
had gone on shore some weeks before, laden with a cargo of salt, and 
efforts were then making to get her off. 

The name " Mobile River " is of a nomenclature which is calcu- 
lated to mislead. Properly speaking, it is the estuary of the Ala- 
bama, or at least it is formed by the confluence of that noble stream 

IG 



182 TRAVELLING IN AMERICA. 

with the river Tombeckbee. Of the scenery between the bay and 
the town I can say nothing, (save that report makes little mention 
of it,) seeing that the four hours spent on it were passed on the 
small, sloW; screw-propelled steam-boat in the darkness of night. 

In the town of Mobile there is not much to detain the traveller 
who has no other objects save pleasure and health in view. Al- 
though now a town of some standing, containing about 14,000 in- 
habitants, it is only of late years that Mobile has sprung into im- 
portance. It is a thriving, bustling, and improving place, and carries 
on a large trade, chiefly in cotton, with many parts of the world, and 
especially with Great Britain. As a port for the shipment of cotton, 
it is now second only to New Orleans. 

From Mobile to New Orleans the sail is by steamers, and along 
the coast, inside of certain sandy islets, which stretch along the low 
flat shore for nearly the whole way to the entrance to Lake Pont- 
chartrain. The distance is about a hundred and seventy miles; and 
the steamer I journeyed in, rejoiced in the once controversial name 
of the Oregon. She was a large, excellent, well-appointed boat; 
and for the moderate cabin fare of five dollars, the voyage is made 
in her in great comfort. Indeed, I may here, once for all, say, that 
throughout my journeyings in the United States of America, I found 
that all I had read or heard regarding the comparative discomfort of 
American steamers from the jostling of fellow-passengers and intru- 
siveness of strangers, was either altogether untrue or grossly exag- 
gerated. There is no doubt that there are in the United States, as 
there are everywhere else, varieties in the travellers you are destined 
to meet with, as well as in the comforts and accommodations of the 
steam-boats you are induced or compelled to travel in. But he or 
she to whom such variety is a source of discomfort, or to whom it is 
not a source of amusement and of interest, had better not travel at 
all, being altogether unfitted for doing so. Nor need it be concealed 
that in America, and particularly in the Western States, where 
society is in a state of rapid advancement and transition, the travel- 
ler is more apt to meet with persons of intrusive and offensive man- 
ners, than when travelling in the older countries of Europe, or at 
least in England. But cases of offensiveness are the exceptions, and 
the rare ones. And it is not even always, when the traveller in 
America meets with a person peculiarly intrusive, that he can justly 
consider the intrusion as impertinence. Ofttimes did I find, on a 
little cross-questioning of the interrogator, who displayed at any time 
an unusual desire to make himself acquainted with my past life, 
present objects, and future prospects, that there was no idea in his 
mind that the detail could be anything save grateful to my feelings; 
and not unfrequently did I discover that the person whose obtrusive- 
ness, when on the river or the road, was most marked, if not most 



TRAVELLING IN AMERICA. 183 

offensive, displyed' most anxiety to be useful in facilitating my 
arrangements at the termination of the voyage or journey. Besides, 
it should be remembered that the United States of America are 
peculiarly a " land of travel," where that party which may there 
at least be denominated par excellence '^the people" move much 
about, from one part of the country to another ; so that to give the 
conduct or conversation of such persons as fair specimens of the con- 
duct and conversation of the more refined circles of Transatlantic 
society, were to commit an injustice which, however often it has 
been committed, is most flagrant and unpardonable. 

I have thought it just to record these remarks, as the result of my 
personal observation while travelling in America, because of the fre- 
quency with which, even still, and of late years, one sees attempts 
made to prove that an offensive familiarity and obstrusiveness 
are very general characteristics among our American brethren. At 
the same time I never had the desire, and I certainly have not the 
intention, to be an indiscriminate panegyrist of the land of '^ stars 
and stripes." True to my motto, I will " nothing extenuate," even 
while I sit down " naught in malice." It is therefore that I add 
that, at least when travelling in the Western States of the American 
Union, the European traveller must expect to hear and to see many 
things which, there can be no doubt, contrast unfavourably with Eu- 
ropean, and particularly with English habits and customs ; and which 
even the educated and intelligent among Americans will themselves 
admit may be much amended. Only to mention a few of such par- 
ticulars in evidence of the general truth of this remark : — the habit, 
I had almost said vice, of boasting, so common in the States, where 
it is not simply amusing, is certainly offensive. When one finds it 
deforming the character of a person, otherwise agreeable and intelli- 
gent, its exhibition is not a little provoking ; but, generally, it is ex- 
hibited to an offensive extent only by the comparatively ignorant and 
illiterate, and is based on an almost entire unacquaintance with the 
advances made in science and art throughout Europe during the last 
twenty years. Confining their attention, in a great measure, to the 
transactions of their own continent, many of the persons one meets 
with in public conveyances in the United States, know little or 
nothing of European affairs ; or only know of them vaguely, and 
through the medium of the inferior part of their public press, which, 
echoing and reflecting the prejudices of '' the people," caters for their 
appetite for praise, by giving only such versions of what passes in 
Europe as will afford that comparison with things in the Republic 
which is most flattering to themselves. Thus it happens that, while 
all Americans see, as they cannot fail to do, the rapid advances in 
every department of art and science, made in their own country, they 
are apt to think that such advances are confined to their Union; that, 



184 TRAVELLING IN AMERICA. 

while they have been progressing, Europe generally, and especially 
England, has been standing still. Of course, it is not worth while 
to stop to point out the greatness of such a mistake, or the errors in 
reasoning into which it will necessarily lead. My object is not to 
laud my native land, but to give a fair exposition of my experience 
when travelling in the United States of America. 

But it is only a duty, and a compliance with the principle set 
out with, to add, that in many, indeed in most of the cases in which 
I heard ridiculous, ignorant boasting relative to American affairs 
or American resources, or offensive remarks and allusions to other 
countries, and to Great Britain in particular, I found, on inquiry, 
that the ignorant utterer was not a native-born American, but — I 
confess it with shame — a native of the land to which his obnoxious 
remarks were intended to refer. I find it recorded among my ex- 
periences, when sailing up the Mississippi, that the Englishmen or 
Irishmen who have left their own country in comparatively early 
life, and probably from disappointed hopes, and have been located 
in the United States for some fifteen or twenty years, are, of all 
classes, the most offensive which one meets when travelling the 
ordinary routes of travel in the United States of America. Al- 
though, perchance, and not unfrequently, these persons are of 
those 

" Who leave their country for their country's good," 

the idea seems to possess them that the fact of they themselves 
having been compelled, by want of industry or of success, to leave 
their native land, gives them a title to abuse her and her institu- 
tions. The abuse of such parties, however, is of little consequence, 
if they would not, at the same time, grossly misrepresent and mis- 
state. But it is not easy for one who feels that the simple know- 
ledge of the truth would go far to promote international goodwill, 
and who witnesses the efforts of the great and good, both in Eng- 
land and America, to foster a right understanding between these 
two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon family, to hear, without 
indignation, the cool misstatements regarding matters in Grreat 
Britain, palmed by such Anglo or Irish Americans upon the cre- 
dulity of the native-born Americans to whom they may address 
themselves. Most natural is it for an American to judge of the 
land of his forefathers, and of its institutions and customs, from 
the report and statement of the person in his own rank in life, and 
whom he personally knows to have been born in it. Nothing can 
he know of the fact, that the person who thus professes to enlighten 
him, left his native land in utter ignorance of the nature of its 
institutions, and without having ever visited the chief seats of lite- 
rature, of elegance, or of commerce, which that glorious laud con- 



TRAVELLING IN AMERICA. 185 

tains : and only can he guess how fiir, since leaving it in early life, 
such informant has had the means of knowing anything regarding 
its progress in education, in art, or in general improvement. He 
takes the coolest and most flagrant assertions for gospel truths, and 
flatters himself with the conviction that he has his information on 
the best authority — on the authority of a native-born subject of 
the land of which he has spoken. And most natural is it that the 
American should do so. 

The extent and magnitude of this evil, and the extent to which 
it operates in the way of preventing that clearer knowledge of each 
other, which is desired by all those who understand the true inte- 
rests of the two nations, and have the wellbeing of both warmly 
at heart, must be seen and felt to be fully appreciated. It extends 
even into high places. Even some of those who know better, find 
it their interest to keep up the delusion ; and it is surely lament- 
able to see a newspaper, conducted by a Scotchman, made con- 
stantly and systematically the vehicle of circulating through the 
United States of America the grossest and most puerile, as well as 
palpable slanders and misstatements, regarding G-reat Britain, and 
the feelings of its inhabitants towards their American brethren. 
Yet so it is -, and the evil descends to the very lowest rank, and 
exhibits itself even in the most trivial matters, of which, among 
many instances that happened under my own observation, I may, 
for the sake of illustrating my reasoning, mention one which 
occurred when sailing up the Mississippi in the steam-ship Peytona. 
A person who was very fond of obtruding his extremely democratic 
opinions, of making impertinent allusions to English politics, and 
of making himself otherwise offensive, and whom I found, on a 
little delicate inquiry, to be a native of Ireland, resident for the 
last twenty years in the United States of America, and whom suc- 
cess in trade had elevated to a social position — to adorn which he 
had not received any adequate education — was asked by a genuine 
Yankee whether any of "these fixings" — pointing to a dish of 
miserably cooked artichokes — were grown in the " old country.^' 
The cool but unhesitating response was — " No ] they have none of 
these things '," and this valuable piece of statistical^ information, 
designed, no doubt, as an illustration of the inferiority of British 
climate and soil, was of course recorded in the memories of the 
surrounding Americans (whom education did not prevent from 
believing it) as something received on the very best authority. 

The above observations are the result of no afterthought. They 
were recorded in my Journal at the time I witnessed the scenes that 
originated them, and it was not till long after this record had been 
made, that my attention was directed to the corroborative observation 
of Mr. Charles Dickens, who remarks, in his Notes on America, that 

16* 



186 TRAVELLING IN AMERICA. 

" In the course of this day's journey we encountered some English- 
men (small farmers, perhaps, or country publicans at home) who 
were settled in America. Of all grades and kinds of men that jostle 
one in the public conveyances of the States, these are often the most 
intolerable and the most insufferable companions. United to every 
disagreeable characteristic that the worst kind of American travellers 
possess, these countrymen of ours display an amount of insolent con- 
ceit, and cool assumption of superiority, quite monstrous to behold. 
In the coarse familiarity of their approach, and the effrontery of their 
inquisitiveness, (which they are in great haste to assert, as if they 
panted to revenge themselves upon the decent old restraints of home,) 
they surpass any native specimens that came within my range of 
observation ; and I often grew so patriotic when I saw and heard 
them, that I would cheerfully have submitted to a reasonable fine, if 
I could have given any other country in the whole world the honour 
of claiming them for its children.'' 

Other sources of annoyance to the European traveller, on the 
western rivers of the United States, and in which the Americans 
have yet much to amend, are to be found in the personal habits and 
practices of the general run of travellers with whom you necessarily 
come into some measure of contact, when travelling in the public 
conveyances. In particular, chewing, and its concomitant spitting, 
are all but universal ; and of this universality the indices are gene- 
rally to be seen on the decks of the steam-packet when sailing up the 
mighty Mississippi. Washed and thoroughly cleaned every morning, 
ere evening they were reduced to a state in every way abominable, 
and anything but appetising. The habit of chewing I had long 
known to be much more general in the United States than in any 
country in Europe, but, till I saw the extent to which it was indulged 
in the Western States of America, I had no adequate idea of the 
magnitude of the evil. There is another evil practice which I may 
be permitted to characterise under the mild name of habit, which is 
unfortunately but too often heard on board the Mississippi steamers 
— I mean the habit of profane swearing. The monstrous Mississippi 
being as it were the great highway from the south to the north, and 
its scarcely less noble tributaries the Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, Red 
Biver, &c., being as it were "branch lines" which intersect the vast 
valley to the right and to the left, there is a constant flow of travel- 
lers of every kind, grade, and sort, travelling along ; while the com- 
parative thinness of the population (there being not more than between 
eight and nine millions in the whole vast region known as the valley 
of the Mississippi — a region capable of supporting in wealth and 
comfort not less than at least ten times that number) renders the 
restraints of law and of order somewhat difficult to be enforced. 
These two causes combine to make the routes of travel by the Missis- 



TRAVELLING IN AMERICA. 187 

sippi the resort of gangs of gamblers, who travel up and down in the 
steamers, playing, or professing to play among themselves, but con- 
stantly on the lookout for the unwary, and ready to combine to 
" pluck the pigeon,'' when such falls into their trap. I was happy 
to be informed that, of late years, the audacity of such persons, as 
well as their numbers, have greatly decreased. Formerly they were 
peculiarly insolent and overbearing, confidently trusting in their 
numbers. But the rapid progress of the Western States in popula- 
tion and civilization has tended greatly to their discountenance ; and 
it is to be hoped that travellers in these regions will, in a few years, 
not have a plentiful supply of blacklegs and gamblers to note as 
among the characteristics of the route. Were it only among such 
persons that the profanity of language I have thought it necessary 
to allude to' exhibited itself, such a thing were only what was to be 
expected. 'Twere unreasonable to expect to " gather grapes of 
thistles ;" and, accordingly, that a cheat and gambler by profession 
should be a profane swearer, is only what might be predicated. But 
the habit is more general than that. Many persons, whpm I found 
on inquiry to be persons otherwise intelligent, and moving in respect- 
able positions in life, were in the habit of interlarding their con- 
versation with oaths of the most awful description. Than this vice 
I know not one of a meaner character. Apart from the religious 
view of the question — which it is surely unnecessary to argue here — 
it is positively the most contemptible of all vices, the vice of lying 
perhaps only excepted. The best that can be said in defence of it 
is, that it is meaningless, inasmuch as the utterer does not really 
intend what he says ; and what can possibly exhibit the practice in a 
more degrading light than the fact, that such is the only kind of 
defence that one ever hears attempted in extenuation of an oath ? 

When offering these records of my personal reminiscences of 
wanderings in the Southern and Western States of the American 
Union, it is right to add that the remarks apply to society as it 
exhibited itself to myself in its outward phase. The slight oppor- 
tunities I had of judging of the state of society in the domestic 
circles would have led me to a different conclusion, and fully pre- 
pared me for crediting the statements of sundry friends in the 
Southern States, that, were my stay sufficiently protracted in one 
place, to enable me to see much of the domestic life of the resi- 
dent merchants and proprietors, I would be compelled to form^ a 
much more favourable opinion than I could form from the habits 
of the more migratory portion of the community whom I would 
find in the steamers of the mighty but muddy Mississippi, and of 
her almost equally great, but generally more limpid, tributaries.^ 

Mais revenons a nos moutons. To return to the sail from Mobile 
to New Orleans. The route I went in the Oregon was to Lake 



188 MOBILE TO NEW ORLEANS. 

Pont-chartrain^ (so named during the French proprietorship of 
Louisiana in honour of a French duke of the name) — and thence 
by a short line of rail to New Orleans. There is another and a 
longer route by the Mississippi ; hut the one by the lake is, I be- 
lieve, generally pursued by travellers. The fare in the cabin was 
five dollars ; and as this was the first of my experiences in travel- 
ling in an American steamer, I may here record something of the 
impressions the monster has left upon my mind. 

It is difiicult to give a graphic conception of such a nondescript 
as an American river steamer, without the aid of the draughts- 
man. But a sufiiciently clear idea of the particulars which distin- 
guish these steam arks of America, from what is understood by the 
term steamboat in Grreat Britain, will be obtained by imagining a 
huge barge, gabert, or hoy, covered all over. On this, which con- 
stitutes a first deck, are placed the engines, fuel, and cargo. On 
the top of this, and supported by pillars, is the main or cabin deck, 
generally with a covered promenade all round, save where an in- 
terruption is caused by the paddle-boxes. On the top of this is 
another, or upper deck, part of which is often occupied by small 
sleeping cabins, and above all stands a house for the pilot. This 
house is in the front part of the boat, the wheel being connected 
with the rudder by chains working the whole length of the deck. 
These steamers vary somewhat in construction, as they do in size 
and in elegance ; and some of them have even an additional deck 
or ^^flat,^^ to those abovementioned. All have a ladies' cabin, 
generally a very elegant affair, and to which only ladies, or gentle- 
men travelling with ladies, have access ; baggage-rooms — an office 
where the ^^ clerk of the boat'' takes fares and issues tickets ; and 
a large, long, general cabin, in which the meals are taken, the sides 
being either occupied by shelves as berths or beds, or small state- 
rooms entering from the cabin. However much they vary, they 
have all a general resemblance; and the above brief description 
will enable the reader to conceive that they must have (the steam 
and funnels only excepted) a very Noah's-ark sort of appearance. 
I have certainly heard persons, both Americans and others, say, 
that they consider these vessels picturesque-looking, if not grace- 
ful. But, with every desire to see wherein the grace lay, I never 
could discover it. Gray they certainly are — ofttimes as gay as 
paint and gilding could make them. Nay, some of them — indeed 
I may say nearly the whole of the passenger-ships — are very hand- 
somely fitted up, as well as very commodious; and the wonder 
only is, that, at such fares, there should be so much elegance, and 
so many of the appliances of comfort. But there is no grace or 
beatity in the general outward appearance of the vessel herself, as 
she sails, like a huge bellowing monster, upon the water. And, 



MOBILE TO NEW ORLEANS. 189 

to my mind, the eye that would compare one of them to a well 
modeled ocean steamship, must he signally wanting in a percep- 
tion of the lines of beauty. None of them have proper masts or 
sails — at least I never saw a river steamer in America under sail 
— and nearly all of them have two engines and two boilers, with 
separate funnels standing in a line across the vessel, and far for- 
ward toward her bows. But, unsightly as some may think these 
river steamships of America, no one can doubt their utility. Like 
most things our transatlantic friends have invented for themselves, 
they are wonderfully well adapted for the purposes for which they 
are designed. Being intended for river sailing, and to convey 
large quantities of produce, and great numbers of people by inland 
navigation and along great arteries of rivers, in which there is 
little or nothing of what is technically called '^ sea^^ to be encoun- 
tered, Jonathan very soon saw, that to prepare his vessels in the 
old way, so as to require a lifting up and lowering down of the 
cargo as it was put on board, and again a lifting up from the hold 
and letting down on the quay, or into the lighter, of the same 
cargo as it was to be unladen, was a mere waste of time and of 
labour. Accordingly, he so constructed his steamships to trade in 
his magnificent and glorious rivers. The cargo, whether it consist 
of live-stock or of general bales of merchandise, is put on board, 
and again unladen in the easiest possible way; and, there being 
little sea encountered in the course of the transit, there is no ne- 
cessity for holds and bulwarks to prevent the cargo from taking 
damage by the washing of the waves. 

As before remarked, there are some singular features in the sail 
from Mobile to New Orleans, inside the screen of low sandy islets 
which stretch along the coast. The shores of the gulf are very flat, 
and as might be expected, the water is very shallow, so that skill is 
required in navigating the ship along. Indeed, in one part, and for 
a considerable distance, commencing at a place named " Grant's 
Pass,'' the channel of the deep water was staked off by long poles, 
most of them having brooms on the top, after the fashion used with 
us, and, I believe, also in America, in indicating that a ship is for 
sale. At the point named Grant's Pass, there was a house standing 
midst the waste of brown waters which surrounded it on all sides, 
constituting what appeared to me about as watery and uncomfortable 
a location as I could have supposed possible— the discomfort being 
aggravated by the conviction that a very trifling increase of the 
waters would sweep the inmates into eternity. I thought so when I 
saw Grant's Pass ; but my after-experience of the log-huts of the 
Mississippi, when the river was in a state of flood, convinced me 
that I had much yet to learn of the discomfort to which all persons 
will be disposed to submit in the struggle of life. Entering at 



19F0 NEW ORLKANS. 

Grant's Pass^ the impetuous Oregon proceeded in her course through- 
out what may be most graphically described as a marine race-course, 
which continued for considerably upwards of a mile. The sea during 
the whole way was brown and turbid, and reminded me strongly of 
Captain Basil HalFs description of the yellowish-brown colour of the 
sea among the Loo-Choo Islands. Leaving Mobile about mid-day, 
we reached the point of disembarkation on Lake Pont-chartraiu 
early next morning ; and, after a damp walk to the trains, started, 
in tolerable railway carriages, along a line of rails five miles in 
length, and through a tract of country in which the land and water 
seemed to contend for the mastery. Of the country passed through, 
as well as of the whole country in and about New Orleans, there 
may be made the remark which Dickens, in his serial of David 
Cojpperfield, makes of the town of Yarmouth. " A mound or so 
might have improved it ; and, if the land had been a little more 
separated from the sea, and the town and the tide had not been quite 
so much mixed up, it would have been nicer." That it certainly 
would. At times the characteristic of New Orleans and of the 
country round it is, that it is one entire swamp. Dig wherever you 
choose, the hole fills with water, the consequence of which is that — 
to use an expression common among the inhabitants themselves — 
the cellars of the houses are of necessity ahove ground. Another 
consequence is, that in few parts of New Orleans need the lover of 
such sport deprive himself of the luxury of a rat Hunt. 

Such is New Orleans and its environs at all times. I entered the 
town in the midst of an almost deluge of rain, which lasted for two 
whole days; and, a few days after that, the "Crevasse'^ broke out, 
and occupied the attention of the alarmed inhabitants during the 
rest of my stay. 

It is not my intention to give either a history or a detailed de- 
scription of New Orleans. The former is sufficiently well known to 
most readers ; and, being a matter of history, can be easily learned 
from more ambitious works, by any one desirous of knowing more 
about the matter; while the latter can most readily be obtained from 
any of the numerous guide-books to be found in New Orleans, as 
well as almost everywhere else. But there are one or two things 
which it would not be proper to leave unmentioned. 

The St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, may almost be said to be the 
building of the city. It looks, with its lofty dome, like the capitol 
of the town ; and from the summit of this dome there is to be had 
about the best view that can be obtained of the whole city and sur- 
rounding country. 

Called the ^' Crescent City'', from the fact that it is built along a 
curve on the left bank of the Mississippi, New Orleans consists, in 
reality, of two towns, which have a very diff"erenb aspect the one from 



NEW ORLEANS. 191 

the other. The smaller and older part is that laid out and settled 
by the French, who founded New Orleans in 1717, while the larger 
and newer portion owes its erection to the energies of the Anglo- 
Saxon race. The marked difference between the two requires to be 
seen to be appreciated. Words could give only a vague idea of it. 
But some notion of its stationary character, under its first masters, 
and of its rapid progress since Louisiana changed hands, may be 
gathered from the following facts. In 1717, New Orleans was 
founded by the French, and continued with them or the Spanish 
(who had it some forty years) till 1803, when it fell into the hands 
of the United States as part of Louisiana. At that time it could not 
have been of much importance, inasmuch as, in 1810, it was found 
to contain only 17,242 inhabitants. In 1820, it had increased to 
above 27,000 ; in 1830, to 46,310 -, and in 1840, to 102,193. At 
present (in 1850) it may be fairly considered as containing above 
150,000 inhabitants, and therefore the fourth city in the United 
States in point of population, while it is the third in point of com- 
merce. 

As I have already mentioned, the Crevasse broke out while I was 
in the Crescent City, and during my stay it formed part of the prin- 
cipal topics of conversation. And well it might. Imagine, reader 
a mighty — the mightiest — river in the known world, having broken 
(not merely overflowed, but broken) its banks for a space of some 
half mile or so, and gradually, despite all the efforts of the energetic 
human inhabitants of the surrounding country, (by sinking of bar- 
ges, steamboats, and otherwise,) increasing the extent of its debou- 
chure, and pouring its waters into the loio&r level of the conterminous 
lands. And imagine, too, that in the midst of the scene, or rather 
at the point most exposed to its ravages, the luxurious inhabitants 
were making the increase of the waters, in their streets and around 
their dwellings, the subject of light-hearted chat — that in the morn- 
ing your drive down the " shell road'' was so surrounded with water 
that you might almost have fished out of the windows of the car- 
riage as you passed along; and your evening journey, as you drove 
to the conversatione, the dance, or the theatre, was through water, 
which mounted some inches up the spokes of your carriage-wheels ; 
and add to all this, that the occasional — I had almost said constant — 
subject of conversation, was the probability of New Orleans being, 
some fine, or at least some floating day, washed down bodily into the 
Gulf of Mexico ! — many sage reasons being given, and many great 
scientific authorities being quoted, to prove the exceeding probability 
of such an event : and so imagining, you will have some idea of the 
characteristics of New Orleans society at the time of my visit, in 
1849. It scarcely required the ravages of cholera, which was then 
visiting the city, to add anything to the dismals of the scene; but so 



192 NEW ORLEANS— THE " LEVEE." 

it was. In the town of New Orleans, and specially in the neighour- 
hood, and in the vessels on the river, cholera was raging to a very 
considerable extent. 

Certainly, therefore, it cannot be supposed that my visit to the 
Crescent City was made at a time calculated to leave on my mind a 
very favourable opinion as to its salubrity ; and it is chiefly on that 
account that I have troubled the reader with the above details. For 
notwithstanding the fact that my opinion was formed under circum- 
stances so disadvantageous to arriving at a favourable one, I maintain 
and record the fact, that the unhealthiness of New Orleans is much 
exaggerated. No doubt the yellow fever visits it much oftener, and 
commits in it more fearful ravages, than is at all desirable ; but there 
are few places secure from the attacks of epidemics — and it is gene- 
rally conceded that, with the greater attention now paid to sewerage 
and cleanliness, the deaths from yellow fever have greatly decreased, 
so that there is every reason to hope that the very circumstance of 
its being necessary to adopt many precautionary measures against 
such periodical attacks may, in the course of time, render New Or- 
leans as healthy a town as almost any in the American Union. 

In connexion with the subject of the Crevasse, and in the almost 
hourly speculations as to what part of New Orleans was to be carried 
down into the Grulf, or whether any part of it was to be spared that 
fate, I heard such frequent mention of the " Levee," as to lead me 
to make special inquiry as to its nature, uses, and history. The Levee 
of which one is doomed to hear much during their stay in New-Or- 
leans, and which occupies so important a position, and discharges 
so important a duty, as fully to justify such constant and respectful 
mention of it, is neither more nor less than a simple embankment to 
prevent the waters of the mighty Mississippi from inundating the 
fertile though marshy plains which stretch away from either bank. 
Opposite the city, the Levee is of considerable breadth, and it looks 
as if it were competent to the task assigned it, of saying'to the turgid 
waters of the ^^ Father of Rivers," thus far shalt thou come but no 
farther. But farther up the stream — and it extends upwards for a 
great distance, above a hundred miles — it seems singularly inade- 
quate, being in many places little more than a comparatively small 
earthen mound or (JScottice) " turf dyke." During my stay in New 
Orleans the Mississippi rose to a greater hight than it had done for 
, many years before ; and the consequence was that a large portion of 
the Levee, about five miles above the city, and to the extent of above 
half a mile long, gave way ; and the waters continued for many days 
to pour through the gap and into the surrounding country, destroy- 
ing property to a very large amount, and ruining many planters ; 
after which it found its way down to the town, many streets of which 
were covered with water for days. During this overflow large num- 



NEW ORLEANS— THE CREVASSE. 193 

bers of snakes, and other reptiles from the swamps, found their way 
into the streets of the Crescent City. Conger snakes — the most venom- 
ous known in the country — were seen in the water in several parts 
of the town ; and a little girl in the Faubourg Triene, while wading 
in the waters flowing along the street, was, in May 1849, bitten by 
a snake or some other reptile, and that so severely that she died in 
a few hours. Such are part of the effects of a Crevasse in the Levee 
which protects the town of New Orleans from the waters of the great 
Mississippi. At the time I write of, great fears were entertained for 
the safety of a considerable portion of the town itself; but by dint 
of great exertion, sinking of boats, bales, and rafts — in the course of 
doing which, many of the Negro slaves employed at the work perished 
of cholera or of fatigue — the Crevasses were stopped, and, for a time 
at least, the Crescent City is safe, I confess that it engendered 
somewhat of a strange feeling to be in the city day after day, while 
the overflow was progressing, and conscious that it had not been 
stopped, and that thousands of tons of water were pouring in on the 
plain in which was your dwelling — to listen and take part in the 
conversation which speculated on the chance of the site of New Or- 
leans being some day or other added to the Grulf of Mexico — or the 
town at least washed down into the Gulf. There is a very prevalent 
opinion in New Orleans, that the bed of the Mississippi is annually 
rising, and most plausible reasons are assigned to prove that such 
must be the fact. I do not feel warranted, by sufl&cient acquaintance 
with the habitudes of this mammoth river, nor have I sufiiciently 
studied the sciences of hydrostatics or hydraulics, to entitle me to 
pronounce an opinion on the subject; but, without troubling my 
readers with the pros and cons of the argument, I may be permitted 
to express a hope that they will concur with me in thinking that, 
if the bed of Father Mississippi rises from under him, Father Mis- 
sissippi would be quite entitled to resent the indignity by getting up 
from his bed. Seriously speaking, however, there does seem some 
cause for the opinion referred to ; and it is to be hoped that some 
one of the many courses which the science and skill of modern 
engineers have suggested, may be adopted, and may be found suffi- 
cient to ward off the apprehended danger. That a large emporium 
will exist on the site of New Orleans, or as near thereto as the waters 
will permit, till the end of time, or at least so long as American or 
Anglo-Saxon civilisation lasts, will be abundantly evident to any one 
who thinks of the matter with a map of the country in his hands, 
and some slight knowledge of the land to enable him to understand 
it. Situated at the outlet of the Mississippi, itself navigable for large 
vessels for nearly three thousend miles — and by it and its giant tribu- 
taries the Missouri, the Ohio, the Arkansas, the Red River, &c., 
connected with a plain of unexampled extent, all of it a region of 

17 



194 NEW ORLEANS— CEMETERIES. 

great fertility — already partially peopled, and now fast peopling, with 
the energetic Anglo-Saxon race — it is next to impossible that New 
Orleans, or whatever the city may be called that takes the place of 
New Orleans, as being situated at the extremity of this line of inland 
communication, can ever fail to be a place of enormous trade and 
exceeding prosperity. 

New Orleans is pre-eminently a city of trade — and being so, the 
most interesting view in or of it is that of the harbour from the 
river, with the forest of masts stretching almost as far as the eye 
can reach. Nevertheless, and although trade is written in large 
characters on almost every building, and on almost every face, the 
Crescent City makes great pretensions as a city of gaiety and 
fashion. It contains three theatres — one French, and the other 
two English. It generally has an operatic company, and dances, 
masquerades, and fancy-balls, are of very frequent occurrence. 
That these should be the characteristics of a city so very much 
given up to the turmoil, bustle, and business of mercantile life — 
that men whose time during the greater part of the day is devoted 
to sugar hogsheads, tobacco, and cotton bales, to ships' freights and 
cargoes, should in the evening feel disposed to an excess of devo- 
tion to music and to mirth may seem surprising. Yet so it is. 
New Orleans is a place of great gaiety at certain seasons of the 
year ; and if the fact that the very devotedness of its inhabitants 
to trade during the forenoon induces them to relax in the refine- 
ments of gay life in the evening, be not a sufficient explanation, 
the only one other that occurs to me is, that, where there is a large 
migratory and changing population — as there unquestionably is in 
New Orleans — there are generally found many means provided for 
public amusement. It is often said, and there is much truth in 
the remark, that the theatres of London and Paris are mainly sup- 
ported by the casual visitors to these great cities. 

The cemeteries of New Orleans may be classed among the nota- 
bilia of the place. The same causes which compel the inhabitants 
to make their cellars above ground regulate the nature and forma- 
tion of their last resting-places. These are likewise built upoiij 
instead of in the land. Both the Catholic and Protestant burial- 
places are worthy of a visit. The former is the larger of the two, 
and a description of one will suffice for both. The Roman Catholic 
cemetery of New Orleans is a very interesting place, and it is ren- 
dered more so by the fLowers and shrubs with which it is tastefully 
and appropriately adorned. It occupies a large space of ground, 
and contains various monuments, many of them both appropriate 
and beautiful. Accustomed to associate undulating grounds, caves, 
shady walks, and deep groves, with my ideas of a fitting necropolis, 
I had not conceived that, without such adjuncts, a place of tombs 



THF MISSISSIPPI. 195 

could be made so grateful to the feelings of a sorrower as was this 
cemetery of the city of New Orleans. Like the Campo Santo of 
Havanna, already described when writing of Cuba, the Roman 
Catholic graveyard of the Crescent City is surrounded by a high 
wall, which is of great thickness, and occupied by a succession of 
recesses, to which access is had from the inside. These recesses 
form family places of sepulture. The space within the walls is oc- 
cupied by tombs of marble or of stone, built upon the land, and 
constructed so as to hold one or more bodies, which are thus lite- 
rally buried above ground. Some of these sepulchres are of very 
elegant formation, but none of the inscriptions that caught my eye 
seemed to warrant transcription. 

The characteristic of the Protestant cemetery is the number of 
that most graceful of all graceful trees — the weeping willow. 
These are planted so as to overhang and overshadow the sepulchres, 
and they flourish luxuriantly in a soil so rich^ and otherwise so 
congenial, j 

Ere the Crevasse had ceased to pour fourth its waters, I em- 
barked at New Orleans in the steam-ship Peytona, to proceed 
thence direct to Louisville, Kentucky, on the banks of the Ohio. 
Even now I can recall the singular conflict of feelings with which 
I took shipping for the voyage up the mighty Mississippi. It was 
a disappointment, and yet it was not so. Since boyhood had I 
been in the habit of associating the name of this Pather of Rivers 
with ideas of indefinite greatness, the very vagueness of which 
formed the chiefest attraction. And now I was at last upon its 
waters, which, great as I felt them to be, and while they dispelled 
at once the pictures imagination had formed, certainly did not sup- 
ply by the reality a scene adequate to fill the place left vacant. 
Opposite new. Orleans the Mississippi is not more than half a mile 
wide, but it is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet 
deep ; and certainly one^f the most striking circumstances, if not 
the most striking circumstance, connected with a sail up this 
gigantic river, is found in the fact that, for such a long distance — 
a distance of above fourteen hundred miles, (equal to that between 
England and Madeira,) — and notwithstanding the frequent pouring 
in of tributaries, almost as gigantic as himself, the Mississippi ap- 
pears to vary little either in breadth or in depth. Pew things 
could, I think, give a more graphic idea of the magnitude of a 
great river than the fact that it could receive the volume of waters 
continuously poured into it by streams almost as large as itself, 
without the traveller on its ^' waste of waters" perceiving that any 
change has taken place. 

It requires a very graphic pen to make a detailed narrative of 
river scenery interesting, and it is not my intention to try the 



196 THE MISSISSIPPI. 

patience of my readers in this way. Besides, I doubt not but the 
scenery exhibited to view during an ascent of the Mississippi has 
been often described; and have we not Banvard's panoramic paint- 
ing, exhibiting at least the main features of the river, almost from 
its birth in the Eocky Mountains till its grave in the Gulf of 
Mexico ? 

But I desire, for the guidance and information of those who may 
read my book, and afterwards visit the scenes, to record my impres- 
sions and experience when making this voyage. Some of them may 
not be found to be much of the nature of allurements to follow my 
steps; but, whatever my record may be, I can at least promise my 
reader that it will be a true and faithful one. 

And first, then, of the steam-ship Peytona, in herself a very 
favourable specimen of a Mississippi steam-ship. As a matter of 
course, (seeing the scene of her exploits was the Mississippi,) her 
engines were high»-pressure, but, notwithstanding this fact, she had 
been a considerable time sailing the river without having met with a 
" blow-up," or, indeed, any accident of a serious kind. Apropos of 
explosions on the Mississippi, there is a very exaggerated notion on 
this subject prevalent in Europe, and even in the northern states of 
the American Union, the impression generally being that explosions 
on the Mississippi are matters of every-day, or at least of very fre- 
quent occurrence. But I can assure my readers — and I am sure 
that Captain Browne of the Peytona will readily corroborate my 
assurance — that whatever tourists may say to give piquancy to their 
narratives, and whatever painters may delineate to add interest and 
excitement to their representations, an explosion of a Mississippi 
steamer is the exception, but not the rule. It is too expensive a 
trade to be much indulged in. 

The Peytona — so-called in honour of a famous southern racing 
marC; the property I believe of a Mr. Peyton — is, or was, a large 
superior vessel of her kind. Her extreme length was two hundred 
and sixty feet, of which two hundred and twenty-four were occupied 
by her principal cabin — ofi" which were the state rooms, fifty in num- 
ber, and containing two berths in each. These state rooms had 
doors entering from the cabin and again from the gallery outside. 
The extreme breadth of the ship was seventy-two feet, and the pad- 
dle-wheels were thirty-three feet in diameter. The vessel was 750 
tons burthen, and, notwithstanding all this, the depth of her hold 
was only eight feet three inches : a fact only to be explained by 
reference to the great breadth of the framework by which the whole 
was supported. She was propelled by two somewhat coarsely fashion- 
ed steam-engines, and had two cylinders of thirty and a half inches 
diameter, with a ten feet stroke. 

Take her all in all, the Peytona was — and I hope is — an unques- 



THE MISSISSIPPI. ;|97 

tionably fine steam-ship. If she had not the mirrors, mahogany, 
rosewood, and gilding, one is accustomed to see in the steam-ships of 
the Clyde, she had much roomier cabins, and everything as bright 
and clean as paint and scrubbing could make them — so bright, so 
clean, and so uncontaminated in the morning^ that it was truly vex- 
atious, if not worse, to see the deck, ere evening came, scarcely 
visible through the defilements of tobacco juice, expectorated by the 
passengers at a great expenditure of jaw as well as of health. 

But the Peytona was not only good, but fast ; and in traversing 
the Mississippi and the Ohio, for fourteen hundred miles or thereby 
up to Louisville, Kentucky, we overtook and passed nearly all — if 
not all — the steamers that had sailed from New Orleans for distant 
ports on our route, within four days of our leaving New Orleans. 
The Niles we passed without compunction or competition ; the Bride 
we overtook, but deserted on the river; the Concordia we over- 
reached and bea^, after a struggle which elicited shoutings from the 
Negro crews of either vessel which were the very reverse of con- 
cord ; and several other competitors shared the same fate. Most of 
these vessels were literally filled with steerage passengers, chiefly 
natives of the Emerald Isle ] and powerfully graphic must be the 
pen that would give a proper idea of the sufferings these poor peo- 
ple frequently have to endure in the prosecution of such a voyage in 
search of a foreign home — sufferings chiefly, if not altogether, caused 
by their ignorance and inexperience, and consequent inability to 
make proper arrangements even to the extent of their limited means. 
I have much to say on this subject, but for the present will forbear, 
as I shall have an opportunity of recurring to it in some after remarks 
on emigration to America, which I propose introducing at the close 
of the book, but which the reader may pass over if he pleases. 
Meanwhile, I would only record the fact that, at the time of which 
I write, hundreds of unfortunate emigrants, who had gathered their 
all and left their native much-loved land, and crossed the broad 
Atlantic in search of a foreign home, perished in the steamers, and 
on the shores of the Mississippi, from damp, exposure, and the rava- 
ges of cholera thereby induced. On board the Peytona we had 
comparatively few steerage passengers, owing, no doubt, to the pas- 
sage-money being somewhat higher than in most of the other steam- 
ers. In the cabin, the charge was twenty-five dollars from New 
Orleans to Louisville; and when it is considered that this charge 
included board at a very excellent table, and a sleeping berth during 
a voyage of above fourteen hundred miles, it will not be regarded 
as anything but exceedingly moderate. For about the same dis- 
tance — viz., from Southampton to Madeira — in the British West 
Indian steam-ships, the fare is five times as much. In this, as well 
as in some other respects, we have surely something to learn from 

17- 



198 THE MISSISSIPPI. 

our transatlantic brethren ; and if they would improve somewhat on 
their present system, by seeing that it is no inroad upon the general 
principle of all men being equal as regard political rights, to allow 
those willing to spend five dollars to have the accommodation pro- 
portioned to five dollars, without tyrannically compelling them to 
pay only one dollar, and to be content with the accommodation 
which it secures; — we at the same time would much improve our 
present system, if we took greater care that we did not " pay too 
dear for our whistle." 

Before leaving New Orleans — ay, before leaving Scotland, or set- 
ting my foot on the continent of America — my ear had been familiar 
with extravagant statements as to the extraordinary speed attained 
by the steamships of the Mississippi. Being somewhat inclined to 
credit the marvels I heard, my consolation for the more mediocre 
state of things in my native land of able but considerate engineers, 
was, that the lightning-like rapidity of the States was attained at a 
commensurate risk to life and limb. Even in New Orleans, and 
while studying the proportions or no-proportions of the marine mon- 
sters that lay alongside of the wharves, I have heard the bile of many 
a northern; as well as my own incredulity, excited by statements that 
the Peytona, and other high-pressure Mississippi steamships, ascended 
as well as descended the river at the rate of fifteen, eighteen, twenty, 
and even twenty-five miles an hour, a preference being obviously 
given to the latter number : and many a warm-hearted southern, 
whose general veracity it would have been gross injustice to have 
questioned, being prepared to close the argument with his ready 
'•'■ fact — meipso tes^te.'^ Twenty or twenty-five miles an hour, and 
against a current flowing at the speed of some three and a half miles 
— and that attained by a steamship costing not above one-third the 
sum per ton, that is expended in such vessels in the river Clyde ! 
Hear this, ye Napiers and others, who have advanced the name of 
Scottish engineers all over the globe, and who have, by the steam- 
ships of your fashioning, to cross the Channel and the broad Atlantic, 
done more to promote the great cause of civilisation, to bind man to 
man, and to consolidate peace, than has been done by all the ambas- 
sadors and plenipotentiaries ever sent forth^ or all the statutes placed 
upon the statute-book. Hear it, and tremble for your well-earned 
laurels, if the statement he true. But it is not true : no such speed 
has ever been attained on the Mississippi, even by the most go-ahead 
blow-up style of craft that was ever launched upon his turbid waters. 
The statistics already given might have shown that the Peytona is 
anything but among the inferior of the steamers navigating this great 
highway of waters — in fact she is one of the very best, and likely to 
continue so — and yet, on the voyage in question, she took exactly 
six days to go from New Orleans to Louisville. The distance is 



THE MISSISSIPPI. 199 

slightly more than fourteen hundred miles ; so that, making allow- 
ance for about half a day occupied by the repair of a paddle-wheel, 
injured by coming in contact with a snag or sawyer, her average 
speed was at the rate of about ten miles an hour. No doubt this was 
against a somewhat rapid current — a current generally, and by those 
anxious to vaunt the superiority of the Mississippi boats over those 
of the northern rivers, or of Europe, said to run at the rate of four 
miles an hour; and which, after estimating its rapidity by the move- 
ments of the rafts, logs of wood, travelling ships, &c., which passed 
while we were stationary, repairing our paddle-wheel on the shore of 
Arkansas, I deliberately assert does not flow faster than three and 
an half miles an hour. But the reader (particularly if a southerner,) 
may be ready to exclaim, ten miles an hour against a current run- 
ning at the rate of three and a half miles is a great speed. No 
doubt it is — and this is just one of the many instances in which peo- 
ple would act wisely if they " let well alone.'' The Mississippi 
steamers go fast, but they don't go faster than the steamers of Eng- 
land and Scotland, or of the northern states of the American Union. 
Again, it may be natural to ask, if such is the speed of the steamers 
when sailing up and against the stream, what is their speed when 
moving down, when they are not only relieved from the obstruction 
of the current, but aided by its flow in the direction they are sailing 
in ? I cannot speak from personal experience of this, never having 
sarled down the ocean rivers of the Western World. But I have 
made inquiry on the subject when on the spot, and I have tested the 
truth of the information I received in answer to my inquiries, by a 
piece of real evidence which could not deceive me. Having been 
detained an extra day at New Orleans, waiting the arrival of the 
Peytona from her downward voyage from Louisville, I had occasion 
to know, and did know, when she reached New Orleans; and when 
on board of her going up, I observed and read the notice on the 
board which contained the announcement of the time at which she 
had actually left Louisville on her said voyage downwards. The re- 
sult corroborated the verbal statements made to me in answer to my 
inquiries on the subject, which was, that a steamer takes about as 
much time to go down as she does to go up. The fact is so ; and 
the explanation is, that, when going down, these steamers are laden, 
if not overladen, with enormously heavy cargoes of merchandise — 
cotton in particular. No one who has seen a Mississippi steamer 
laden with cotton bales, going down the Mississippi, will discredit 
this statement. They look literally like floating storehouses of cot- 
ton; and when it is kept in view that each of these steamers brings 
down from one thousand to three thousand bales, the illustration will 
not seem in any way extravagant. Nor are the numbers of such 
ships, met with on the voyage upwards, by any means small; it was 



200 THE MISSISSIPPI. 

by no means a rare or an unusual sight : many were encountered be- 
tween sunrise and sunset, and those that met and passed us in the 
course of the night, may reasonably be presumed to have been at 
least as numerous. 

Such and so numerous are the steam-ships of the Mississippi. Of 
the general character and characteristics of the travellers met with, 
in traversing its waters, I have already written according to my ex- 
perience of them. Next to these, the inquiry will naturally be as 
to the scenery opened up to view in passing along these rivers. And 
here too, I fear, my truthful narrative must be scarcely in accord- 
ance with those of more enthusiastic voyagers. That there is much 
to interest in a sail up the Mississippi, is undeniably the truth. The 
very vastness of the river itself, as it pours its waters along through 
the wilderness; the deep solitude through which you pass; the 
solemn gloom, which is the prevailing characteristic of the whole 
scene ; and the giant rivers, only second to the great Father of 
Waters himself, which from age to age continue ceaselessly to pour 
their waters into his mighty and turgid stream, but without making 
any apparent change either in its opaqueness or in its volume, are 
all circumstances which render the scenery of the Mississippi pe- 
culiarly striking. But if the landscape is impressive, it is certainly 
only impressive from its loneness and its vastness. There is a dis- 
mal sameness about it which is most depressing to the spirits; and, 
during the whole of the passage from New Orleans to Louisville, I 
felt a depression most foreign to my nature, and most inimical to 
anything like jest or amusement ; while, if I might judge from the 
demeanour of the rest of my white fellow-voyagers, my feelings were 
participated in by nearly all on board. No doubt, brother Jonathan 
is not generally either a mirth-loving or a mirth-moving animal — at 
least, as regards his public appearances, it is but seldom that he per- 
petrates a joke — and nothing can be more solemn (I had almost said 
ridiculously solemn) than the gravity and seriousness with which the 
travellers on the great routes and highways of the United States set 
to the business of eating and drinking, at their public tables. No 
doubt, with all wise men, the business of eating and drinking is quite 
entitled to be considered as a serious affair ; but there is "certainly 
neither philosophy in, nor necessity for, the extreme solemnity and 
silence with which, at their public tables, (in private it is very dif- 
ferent,) our republican brethren address themselves to their meals. 
Dickens, in his Notes, asserts, with reference to such meals in 
America, that ^^undertakers on duty would be sprightly beside 
them ; and a collation of funeral baked meats, in comparison with 
their meals, would be a sparkling festivity." The remark is unduly 
severe, and in it truth is somewhat sacrificed at the shrine of effect. 
But there is enough of truth in it to make it worthy of consideration 



THE MISSISSIPPI. 201 

on the part of those to whom it relates. A joke (even though a bad 
one) is a great improver of social intercourse, as well as an import- 
ant aid to digestion ; and light, cheerful discourse is unquestionably 
the very best seasoner of all repasts. It may be said of a joke what 
the Scotchman affirmed of a dram — a good meal deserves it and a 
bad one requires it ; so that, whether the viands be good or bad, the 
general comfort and happiness is improved thereby. But the meals 
on board the steam-ship Peytona, when voyaging on the Mississippi, 
were even more melancholy affairs than usual. Even now, I can re- 
call them only with the feelings with which one recalls the perform- 
ance of a duty ; and, amidst the whole reminiscences, I can scarcely 
remember one flitting smile as having passed over the faces of any 
of my fellow-travellers, (albeit there were several fair ones among 
them,) while engaged in the discharge of their daily task of eating 
and drinking. As, therefore, I felt unwonted depression under the 
influences of the scenery, it is fair to imagine that similar feelings 
experienced by my fellow- voyagers. On, on we went, by night and 
day, through a continuity of forest scenery of a perfectly same 
character — so much so that, when looking out on the bank of the 
river at night, before going to bed, and again when gazing forth iu 
the same direction next morning, you could have sworn that you 
saw the same morass and the same trees, although a distance of 
eighty or ninety miles divided the one spot from the other. But, 
dismal in their dreary and pestilential solitudes as the shores of the 
Mississippi are at all times, they were especially so at the period of 
which I write. The river was very high — higher than it had been 
since 1816 j and, for several hundred miles above New Orleans, the 
land along its banks was one flooded as well as wooded swamp. The 
slimy water was seen far in among the trees, far as the eye could 
penetrate; and log huts, and other dwellings of the people who lived 
along the banks of the river, were so completely surrounded with 
water, as to render it necessary for their occupants to use boats as 
their means of entrance and of exit. In point of fact, the only living 
inmates of such locations that seemed to be at all in circumstances 
of tolerable comfort, were the ducks or geese, which sailed about the 
dwellings " rejoicing like boon companions over their liquor ;'' and 
even these animals must occasionally have felt the want of a dry 
nest to repose in, after the fatigue of a day's ploughing in the muddy 
waters of the great Father of Kivers. In many cases the waters had 
risen far above the level of the floors of the dwellings; but, not 
being privileged to see the interiors of the ^' Edens of the west,^' 
we could not say how far the inhabitants may have succeeded in 
turning the circumstances to good account, or in resisting its evil 
influences. 

With such scenes presented day after day, and hour after hour, 



202 THE MISSISSIPPI. 

it was only a fitting tribute to the gifted author of Martin Chuz- 
zleioit, that the recollection of his description of Martin and Mark 
Tapley going to and at the site of the projected city of Eden, 
should have risen frequently to my mind. ^^ By degrees the towns 
in the route became more thinly scattered, and for many hours 
together they would see no other habitations than the huts of the 
woodcutters where the vessel stopped for fuel. Sky, wood, and water 
all the livelong day, and heat that blistered everything it touched.^' 

Another general characteristic of voyaging, or rather steaming, 
on the Mississippi, is the total absence of sailing craft. For thou- 
sands of miles on the Mississippi and its tributaries, you will not 
see a single vessel under sail. In this respect it contrasts remark- 
ably with its lovely rival in American scenic fame, the sprightly, glo- 
rious Hudson, on steaming upon which you are continually greeted 
with that loveliest of all lovely objects connected with a river or sea 
view — a host of vessels under canvas. In lieu of such, but a 
very poor substitute, the Mississippi has her flat-boats or floating 
storehouses — her travelling shops and family moving mansions — 
and occasionally her floating theatres or places of public exhibi- 
tion. But all these are going down, floating lazily on the down- 
ward stream, guided, but scarcely impelled, by long poles or sweeps 
held in the hands of the boatmen ; and if any of them sported 
anything of the nature of a sail, it was so far remote from a sai- 
lor's idea of such, that it may without injustice be left out of con- 
sideration altogether. 

Previous to the establishment of steamers, the whole trade of 
the Mississippi was conducted by means of those flat-bottomed 
boats ; and even yet they form so distinct and so characteristic a 
feature of the sail, that any description of the river, without pro- 
minent mention of them, would be incomplete. In such vessels 
or hollow rafts, the produce is floated down from distances of three 
thousand miles, and lesser distances, to the town of New Orleans, 
there to be disposed of by shipment or otherwise. The boats are 
little more than square boxes, the roof somewhat rounded, and a 
large space occupied as the hold, containing Indian corn and other 
farm produce, and a smaller portion being occupied by the human 
inhabitants of this floating habitation. The boat moves along with 
the flow of the river, which runs at the rate of about three and a 
half, and under four miles an hour; while the boatmen regulate 
its motions by means of long poles. In piloting themselves along, 
these boatmen encounter much risk as well from steamers dur- 
ing the night as from ^^ snags,'' "planters," and "sawyers," both 
by night and day, and even still more from the eddies, of which 
many are to be found in the river, I was told a story of a party 
on board a flat boat being surprised to hear a continuous strain of 



THE MISSISSIPPI. 203 

music and mirth for some six or eight hours, which fell on their 
ears, as they imagined themselves to be floating onwards at the 
rate of four miles per hour. But when morning broke, they found 
that they had been merely sailing round and round in an eddy, in 
one of the bends of the river — the said eddy being caused by one 
of those sudden changes which are so frequent in the Mississippi, 
and the music being the strains from the fiddle of a man, whose 
solitary house they had passed and repassed in the course of their 
gyrations. Some of these flat boats are of a smaller size, and are 
occupied as floating shops, containing and retailing supplies of tea, 
tobacco, candles, groceries, and other articles, for the use of the 
inhabitants along the banks. In some others, the trades of tin- 
kers, smiths, &c., are carried on, as they journey down the river, 
making fast to the river-side at every place where the circum- 
stances make it expedient. All at last reach New Orleans, where, 
as it is impossible to sail up again against the current, they dis- 
pose of their temporary floating-house, (or abandon it, if the market 
for such articles be glutted,) and return by one or other of the 
steamers to the place whence they had originally set out, probably 
to repeat the same thing again and again. Sometimes the interest, 
in one of these flat boats and its motley inhabitants, is increased 
by hearing from it the strains of a fiddle, or of a banjo, or by 
perceiving that the Negroes or others on board, are amusing them- 
selves by dancing. When formerly writing of the apparent de- 
pression of spirits exhibited by the party on board the Peytona, I 
used advisedly the term ^' white " fellow-passengers, for assuredly 
the remark does not apply to the Negro. Sambo is generally 
in good spirits, and boisterous in his mirth, as any one will admit 
who has heard the shouting, laughing, jibing, and singing, be- 
tween the Negroes on board two Mississippi steamships, as they 
struggle for precedence during one of those too common and very 
dangerous races up or down the river. 

As a matter of course, wood is the fuel used in the Mississippi 
and Ohio steam-ships, although, after ascending a considerable dis- 
tance, some coals may be had, and are often taken on board. But 
wood is the principal fuel, and the mode of wooding is a very simple 
one. In going down, the steamer requires to stop and come to, to 
get the wood put on board from the floats on which it is lying 
heaped up in what is called " cords,'' or piles of a certain specific 
length and depth, because the floats could not be brought back if 
allowed to float to any distance down the current. But in going up, 
this detention is avoided. The steamer goes close to the bank — the 
woodman and his assistants having been previously hailed, and being 
ready to put off" his float or floats ; and, one or more of the boats 
or rafts being attached by the hawsers of the steamer to the pant- 



204 THE MISSISSIPPI. 

ing monster, the latter then proceeds on her upward course, drag- 
ging the wood boats with her, and only slightly retarded, and 
panting a little more by the additional weight which she has thus 
to drag through the waters. This being done, the clerk of the 
steam-ship, or his assistant, proceeds on board the raft or rafts, and 
measures the wood, and the price being then adjusted, (if it has 
not been so before,) parties from the steamer then proceed to aid 
the boatmen to empty the floats of their cargoes, by throwing the 
large billets (four feet long) on to the deck of the steamer. " Many 
hands make light work ; " and it being a matter of importance to 
both parties concerned, that, on the one hand, the steamer should 
not be retarded by the wood boats longer than is absolutely neces- 
sary, and that, on the other hand, the woodmen should have as short 
a return-voyage as possible, it is striking the rapidity with which ^ 
large floats are emptied of their contents. At first I was surprised 
at the numbers of workmen that poured from the steamer to the 
raft, as soon as the moorings were fastened — or even before — and 
erroneously imagined that the Mississippi steamers must have an 
unusually large complement of hands. But on inquiring at the 
master (and I believe owner) of the ship, I found that the many 
hands who thus make light work of the wooding were most of them 
Mississippi boatmen, who, having sailed down the river with their 
rafts and merchandise, and having disposed of both the latter at 
New Orleans, were now returning to their homes, and thus " work- 
ing their passage " upwards, in a very praiseworthy spirit, saving 
their pockets by aiding in putting the fuel on board the steam-ship. 
In sailing up the Mississippi, from New Orleans to its junction 
with the Ohio, and again up the Ohio as far as the town of Louis- 
ville, in the state of Kentucky, and of Cincinnati in the state of 
Ohio, you pass in succession, either on the right or left hand, along 
the shores of the states of Loui-^iana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Ten- 
nessee, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. You thus 
have a fair opportunity of contrasting at least the general outward 
aspect of some of the slaveholding states, with that of states where 
slavery is unknown, or has been abolished ; and, truth to say, the 
contrast is very great — so great as to be in itself a powerful sermon 
in favour of abolition. But the '^ sermon " here is not " in trees,'' 
but in the want of them. The white labourer, with his arm of 
freedom, seems alone capable of struggling successfully against the 
giants of the forest; and, wherever you see a tract of ground more 
than usually clear, and of more than common fertility, as you sail 
up the mighty stream of the Mississippi, and gaze on the vast soli- 
tudes which are to be seen on its banks, rest assured that the party 
you are so gazing on belongs to a free state, and not to a slavehold- 
ing one. 



THE MISSISSIPPI. 205 

When mentioning the process of clearing, I am reminded of the 
singular effect produced by the mode in which this is gone about. 
Once or oftener, in the course of a day, there is to be seen, from 
the upper deck of the steamer, a large tract of still wooded country, 
over which it would seem as if the angel of death had cast his 
shade. A blight has passed over all the gigantic forest trees within 
a large circumference, and the viridity of their still flourishing neigh- 
bours, by whom the plague-struck spot is surrounded, only renders 
the blasted and brown appearance of the stricken trees the more 
remarkable. And truly they are stricken — literally stricken — and 
that by the axe wielded by the stalworth arm of the backwoodsman. 
The process which engenders the appearance described is shortly 
this : When it has been resolved to clear any portion of land of the 
timber growing on it, the first step taken by the woodcutter is, to 
cut a notch some inches deep into and through the bark, at the bot- 
tom of the trees. This prevents the ascent of the sap j the trees 
wither and decay, and of course speedily assume the blighted ap- 
pearance already referred to — and thus they stand until, being suf- 
ficiently decayed, the next powerful storm of wind comes in aid of 
the woodcutter's operations, by levelling them with the ground. 
Ere this consummation is attained, the trees have the blasted appear- 
ance to which allusion has been above made. 

Who is there who has heard of the navigation of the Father of 
Eivers, without hearing of the ^^ snags" and "sawyers," which form 
impediments and dangers to be encountered in navigating his stream ? 
The vast volume of waters moving through the great alluvial plain, 
and ofttimes overflowing large portions of it, frequently changes 
their course and direction. The bank on one side is undermined 
for a considerable distance, and then disappears in the mighty, 
muddy stream, carrying down to the bottom with it the trees grow- 
ing upon its surface ; which trees ofttimes get stopped by some 
shoal, and are then embedded in the bottom of the river by gradual 
accumulations of sand. On the other or opposite bank, in most 
cases, there is a proportionate part of the former bed of the river 
left exposed and comparatively dry, and the part from which the 
water has thus receded is speedily — indeed ere the season closes — 
covered with a luxuriant crop of young cotton-wood trees. The 
trees overwhelmed and sunk in the new channel the river has formed 
for itself, are known by the terras "snags" or "sawyers," according 
to their powers of doing mischief. When the submerged tree stands 
upright and fixed, it is less objectionable, and is called a "snag," or 
occasionally a "planter;" while, when the end which rises above 
the water points in a slanting direction, and dips up and down as it 
is moved by the current, its characteristically descriptive name is a 
" sawyer." 



206 THE OHIO. 

Tlmnder-storms are of very frequent occurrence about the shores 
of the Mississippi ; and what has been already said of the loneness 
of the scene, will prepare the reader for the statement, that there is 
much that is very imposing and impressive in the rolling and rever- 
berating of the thunder, and the flashing of the lightning on this 
gigantic river, and among these vast sylvan solitudes. It seems as 
if it were the only artillery proportionate to the scene. 

Another feature of the Mississippi, already noticed when writing 
of the steamboats, is the total absence of vessels under sail. During 
a ten days' sail on the broad deep stream, I did not perceive any 
nearer approach to a white sail than was to be seen in the square 
dirty rag of some bargeman, who was thus endeavouring to aid the 
power of the downward current, by seeking a little assistance from 
a favouring breeze. 

About three hundred miles up the river from New Orleans stands 
the town of Natchez — containing some five or six thousand inhabit- 
ants — divided into Natchez on the hill, and Natchez under the hill, 
and having a short time back a very villainous reputation, as the place 
of harbourage of various bands of gamblers and other disreputables, 
but now enjoying a somewhat better and an improving character. 

About two hundred miles beyond Natchez, the steamer touches 
at the very picturesque little town of Yicksburg, (famous for the 
summary justice some years ago executed on the persons of a band 
of these very same gamblers, already mentioned) ; and steaming on- 
wards for some five hundred miles farther, and passing various small 
stations, including Helena, a town of about five hundred inhabitants, 
(lately the scene of a diabolical tragedy in the burning of a slave,) 
you arrive at the town of Memphis, a town which — despite the an- 
cient name that has been given to it — bears as many of the marks 
of modern movement as any upon the route. One or two days' far- 
ther steaming brings you to the mouth of the Ohio, into which I 
passed, with anythiDg save a feeling of regret that I was exchanging 
the dull oppressive sameness of tTie Mississippi, for the somewhat 
bolder and more varied scenery of the Ohio. Up the latter river we 
proceeded through a succession of views, which, although certainly 
a great improvement on that of the larger stream of which it is a 
gigantic tributary, did not, in my opinion, exhibit any peculiarities 
to induce me to add to the descriptions of previous writers. 

We proceeded, in the first place to the town of Louisville, in Ken- 
tucky, (a very improving town of some 40,000 inhabitants,) and 
thereafter to Cincinnati — now the largest city in ihQ "Western States 
of the American Union. 



STATE OF OHIO. 207 



CHAPTEE X. 

" The fall of waters and the song of birds, 
And hills that echo to the distant herds, 
Are luxuries excelling all the glare 
The world can toast, and her chief fav'rites share." 

COWPER. 

Dickens and others have called Cincinnati a " beautiful city" ; 
and, while I am not prepared to admit the entire appropriateness of 
the appellation, I certainly think it a very handsome town. The ex- 
traordinary rapidity of its progress is, however, the most important 
circumstance connected with its history. Even Mrs. Trollope would 
now scarcely recognise Cincinnati, so much has it changed and in- 
creased during the few years that have elapsed since it was made by 
her the chosen spot of her temporary sojourn ; and, judging of for- 
mer manners by her portraiture of them, those of the inhabitants of 
Cincinnati must have made equal progress with the buildings of the 
city. 

^' Fifty years ago," said General Harrison, in a discourse delivered 
by him before the historical society of Ohio, " there was not a Chris- 
tian inhabitant within the bounds which now comprise the state of 
Ohio," (an extent of territory of nearly forty-four thousand square 
miles ;) ^' and if, a few years anterior to that period, a traveller had 
been passing down the magnificent river which forms our southern 
boundary, he might not have seen in its whole course of eleven hun- 
dred miles a single human being — certainly not a habitation, nor the 
vestige of one calculated for the residence of man." And now what 
a change ! In 1790, the whole population of the state of Ohio did 
not exceed three thousand; in 1840 it had reached 1,519,467; and 
now, in the close of 1849, it cannot be much less than two millions. 
But the contrast between the past and present is best illustrated by 
confining attention to the town of Cincinnati. In 1796, Cincinnati 
was simply a small village of log cabins, consisting of some dozen 
wooden huts or houses ; and I saw, in the possession of an intelligent 
citizen, a sketch of it, representing it as it was in this condition. 
Now, within little more than half a century, it is a city of nearly 
120,000 inhabitants ; and it is still, by births and emigration, in- 
creasing (as I was informed by professional gentlemen of influence 
and intelligence) at a rate of about ten thousand annually. The 
streets of Cincinnati are wide, regular, and at right angles with each 
other ; and were they somewhat better paved, it would be a great 
improvement. This is, however, a charge which may be generally 
advanced against the transatlantic cities. In some of them, indeed, 



208 CINCINNATI. 

good paving is not to be expected. Although named by the ambi- 
tious term city — of which term our American brethren seem much 
enamoured, (witness the city of Cleveland on the banks of Lake Erie, 
Sandusky city, &c.) — their right to the title is yet in embryo. To 
entitle them to the name of towns, much less of cities, they want 
these very necessary elements, houses and inhabitants ; and, inasmuch 
as there are few, if any, among them, so favourably situated as Cin- 
cinnati, centuries will probably elapse ere many of them have ex- 
panded beyond what would be denominated villages in the " Old 
Country.^' In such " cities to be," it were unreasonable to expect 
well-paved streets j but even in the generality of the larger towns, 
the paving is anything but good. If I except Boston and Philadel- 
phia, I did not find well-paved well-kept streets in any of the large 
towns in the American Union. I had thought, before leaving Scot- 
land, that my native city of Glasgow — which, in the extraordinary 
rapidity of its progress in size, beauty, and wealth, displays more of 
American growth than any city in Europe — enjoyed a somewhat un- 
enviable distinction in having the carriage-ways of many of its streets 
in great dis-repair. But Glasgow contrasts favourably in this respect 
with any of the large cities of the American Union ; and had the 
Cincinnati Jarvey who attempted to extort six dollars from myself 
and friend, for a two hours' drive to the Cincinnati Observatory, at- 
tempted to justify his extortion by an appeal to the badness of the 
streets and deepness of the ruts, he might have succeeded in making 
out something of a good special case. 

Cincinnati contains some good public buildings, such as the Ob- 
servatory, already casually noticed, which is built on a hill called 
Mount Adams, that rises immediately above the town, and which 
contains a telescope of large size and power imported from the conti- 
nent of Europe — the new Catholic Cathedral, of which the spire and 
portico are really fine, although the spire is perhaps somewhat too 
high — the College — and some others. But none of them are of 
such beauty or dimensions as to attract much of the attention of a 
traveller, who has seen the architectural beauties of Great Britain. 
But there has been very recently erected at Cincinnati a building 
which deserves that honourable and prominent mention should be 
made of it, were it only because it is intended to be, and will be, till 
some vaster scheme outrivals it, the largest hotel in that country, 
where monster hotels are the rule, and not the exception. When I 
visited Cincinnati in 1849, there was in course of erection a hotel, 
which, I was informed, would contain the almost incredible number 
of above five hundred separate bedrooms, besides eating and other 
rooms, proportionate to the extent of the sleeping accommodation. 
But hotel-keeping in America is on a very large scale, and the prac- 
tice among the merchants and traders of boarding at the hotels — 



CINCINNATI. 209 

ofttiraes with tlicir wives and families — and merely sleeping in their 
own houses, gives great encoura^^ement to these mammoth estab- 
lishments. But my American friends must excuse my preferring 
the more secluded English system. No doubt, the hotels in the 
United States are generally not only large, but handsome, and hand- 
somely furnished, (although certainly neither superior in these re- 
spects to the ordinary hotels of England and Scotland, nor equal to 
what may be termed the first-class hotels of London, and some other 
of the principal towns of Britain;) and, the very reasonable amount 
of the charges considered, the supply of viands is usually unexcep- 
tio"nable in all the particulars of quantity, quality, and cooking. 
But, prejudice or no prejudice, I prefer the English system, where 
men are not so gregarious in their eating : and thus it was that, on 
my first visit to New York, I was attracted to the very superior 
hotel called ^^ Delmonicos,^' simply by the remark of a friend that 
the matters of the table were there conducted more after the Eng- 
lish fashion — the cuisine being decidedly and excellently French. 

But to return to Cincinnati. There is perhaps nothing connected 
with the7:>rese?zi( position of the city, or the present development of 
the energies of its inhabitants, more creditable, or more worthy of 
remark, than the attention paid to the cause of education. The sys- 
tem of national education in the United States of America has much 
in it that calls for consideration from all who have the real well-be- 
ing of the great family of man truly at heart; and great things may 
be expected from the efiects it is calculated to produce on the rising 
generation. Actuated by a wise and an enlightened policy, the 
States of the American Union have recognised the necessity of com- 
bining mental improvement with material progress ; of making edu- 
cation keep pace with national wealth, and increase in civilisation at 
home go hand in hand with increase of power abroad : thus it is 
that there is a larger proportion of the population of the United 
States engaged in attendance on a course of instruction than is to be 
found in any other country on the face of the whole globe. All 
honour to them that such is the fact. This, however, is a subject 
too ambitious, and too extensive, to be discussed at length in a work 
like the present ; but having had my attention prominently directed, 
while in Cincinnati, to the zealous and highly liberal manner in 
which the system is wrought out in that city, I cannot deny myself 
the satisfaction of here introducing a few remarks upon it. 

In the majority of the instances in which error is committed, in 
reasoning on matters connected with the United States of America, 
the mistake arises from confounding, or at least from not discrimi- 
nating, between the powers and constitution of the Federal Grovern- 
ment, and the powers which the separate States have severally 
reserved to themselves. No doubt, the constitution and laws of the 

18* 



210 CINCINNATI. 

United States are declared to "be supreme — so supreme, that no State 
law is valid which comes in competition with the constitution, or 
with any law of the United States ; and it has been well remarked 
by that distinguished American statesman, the Hon. Daniel Webster, 
that it is this very principle which makes the united laws of the 
General Government supreme, that constitutes the American consti- 
tution. Without this, the Union would be merely a confederacy. 
As a general theoretic constitutional principle, then, it may be 
affirmed of the constitution of the American republic, that the law 
of no state of the Union can be valid where it conflicts and is at 
variance with any law of the General Government ; and that, if at 
any time any question of interference should arise, the power of 
decision between the individual State and the Union is placed in the 
hands of the Supreme Court at Washington, which also has power 
to decide questions that may arise between one state and another. 
It will be at once seen how important is the existence both of this 
principle and of this power, and also that both are essentially neces- 
sary to the integrity, and indeed to the very existence, of the Union 
itself. But while the line of demarcation is in some cases not very 
well defined, and in others not much respected, there are, at the 
same time, matters and powers which the individual states have 
reserved to themselves, and with which the General Government has 
nothing to do. Of this the education of the people is one. There 
is, properly speaking, no general State education. Each state is at 
liberty to legislate on this subject as it pleases, and each state has 
legislated regarding it j and, to the credit of our American brethren, 
let it be remembered that there is now no country in the world 
where the secular education of the people is better attended to than 
it is in the United States. I say secular, not because I can, of my 
own knowledge, say that the religious education of the people is 
neglected, but because that is left to each religious denomination it- 
self. In America, where there is no State church, all that the state 
governments do, in connexion with the public education of the people, 
is to provide schools, in which the children receive a secular educa- 
tion at the public expense, a portion of the local taxes being appro- 
priated for that purpose. Every state in the Union has some 
provision of that nature, although, as has been already mentioned, 
no one state has the power of controlling another, through the 
medium of the General Government or otherwise, in relation to this 
matter. In every state of the Union there is an ample provision for 
the support of schools for the education of white children ; and, 
while I of course cannot vouch for the truth of the statement of 
myself, I had it from several influential gentlemen of Louisiana, that 
in that, as well as in some other slave states, provision would have 
been made for the education of the children of the slaves, had not 



CINCINNATI. 211 

SO violent a spirit of opposition been excited, of late years, in the 
south, by the proceedings of the abolitionists of the north. It may 
seem a strange thing to say that the movements of northern states 
to abolish slavery should have operated as a preventive to the southern 
ones educating, in some degree, their black population ; but it is easy 
for one who has personally witnessed the keenness of feeling that 
has been excited on this question of abolition, to see that such is 
likely to be the case. To judge from the language of some parties 
in the New England states, one would suppose that they considered 
all arguments and stratagems fair, provided only they tended to 
further the " abolition ticket.'^ Fas aut nefas seems the motto. In 
May or June, 1849, an instance occurred of the seizure of a box, 
despatched per rail from one of the slave states, (Kentucky,) directed 
to Philadelphia, which, when opened, was found to contain two live 
slaves, whom it was thus intended to remove from slavery to free- 
dom ; while the extreme among the anti-abolition parties of the south 
are as unscrupulous, and fully more extravagant, in their doings or 
language. To judge from the language of some of them, no punish- 
ment is too bad for the conduct of their opponents ) and to form an 
opinion from the remarks of nearly all of them, whether in public or 
in private, it would seem as if they would rather dismember the 
Federal Union than give way to the abolition movement — at least 
for some time to come. Even in Congress, such language is occa- 
sionally used, and the scenes to which its introduction leads are 
occasionally very strange ones for a legislative assembly. The follow- 
ing, taken from a report of proceedings in the United States' House 
of Representatives, on 13th December, 1849, will suffice for a speci- 
men. The scene occurred on the discussion of a resolution of Mr. 
Brown, of Mississippi, that the Hon. H. Cobb should be elected to 
the highly important office of speaker : — 

Mr. D r said that the resolution of Mr. Brown, in effect, 

called upon the Whigs to make an unconditional surrender. He 
would vote for anybody but a disunionist to occupy the chair. 

A VOICE. — There is no such person in the house. 

Mr. D R. — I think so. 

Voices. — Where is he ? 

Mr. D R pointed to Mr. M . 

Mr. M DE. — If the gentleman charges me with being a dis- 
unionist, it is false ? 

Mr. I) R. — You are a liar. 

Immediately Mr. M de left his seat on the opposite side of 

the house, and rushed towards Mr. D r. The parties were not 

more than four feet apart, when members rushed between. There 
were cries of " Fight \" The sergeant-at-arms hurried down, with 
the mace of office in his hand. There were loud cries of " Order." 



212: CINCINNATI. 

Lobby members mounted the side scenes. Mr. M de beck- 
oned Mr. D r to follow him to the Rotunda. There were 

motions of adjournment, midst a scene of the greatest possible 
disorder. 

But such scenes are very rare, and when they do occur, the 
words used cannot be regarded otherwise than as the dictations of 
temper and of haste. But the feelings which they display have 
been evinced even in the Upper House of the American Legisla- 
ture ', and that they were there enunciated and argued on with 
great decorum, dignity, and ability, only proves that they are 
deeper seated than some parties in America or in England are will- 
ing to admit. Of this any one may satisfy himself, by perusing 
the published speeches of Messrs. Hayne and Webster, delivered 
in the United States' Senate in January, 1830.' There the osfeii- 
sihle subject of discussion was what is known in America as the 
*^ nullification" question, or the right of an individual state to 
declare a law of the Greneral Grovernment null and of no eiFect 
within that state's own particular limits or territory — a doctrine 
which Mr. Webster justly characterized as one which would reduce 
the Constitution to a mere confederacy. But although that was 
the ostensible subject, the whole tenor of the argument goes to 
prove the extreme dissonance that exists between the north and 
the south on the question of slavery. That this dissonance ever 
will lead to a dismemberment of the American Union, however, I 
am far from thinking. If there be one thing of a national cha- 
racter which an American values more than another, it is that he 
is a member of the Union. It is not that he is a citizen of New 
York or of Massachusetts, of Carolina or of Alabama, of Ken- 
tucky or of Ohio, but it is that, being such, he is a member of the 
Great American Union or Republic ; and, without going the length 
of saying that a separation of the north from the south could not 
be made without in any way interfering with the peaceful relations 
between the two, I certainly would, were I an American, regard a 
dismemberment of the Union as the greatest misfortune that could 
befall my great and rising country. But of such an event I have 
little fear. The northern and southern states of the American 
Republic stuck together even at a time when the latter had the 
greatest and most obvious of all possible interests to secede from 
the cause of the former ; and it were well that the northern party 
should now remember this fact, when urging their southern brethren 
on this tender subject of slave emancipation. 

This, however, is a digression. To return to the question of 
state education. In each of the states there is a provision for the 
secular education of the children of freemen, at the expense of the 
state itself. In some states the allowance is greater than in others,^ 



CINCINNATI. 213 

even taken in proportion to the population. The state of Connec- 
ticut has the honour of standing at the head of that list that would 
enumerate the states of the American Union according to their * 
respective public provisions for the education of the people. With 
a population not exceeding 400,000, the sum annually devoted by 
the state to the support of the public schools is about £26,000 
sterling ; and it is a fact worthy of record, were it only as a some- 
what singular coincidence, that while Connecticut is thus distin- 
guished above all the other states of the American Union for the 
large amount of its public school fund in proportion to the popula- 
tion, it is also the only one in the republic in which theatrical 
representations are prohibited by law. Different parties will inter- 
pret these facts, and connect or separate them, according to their 
prepossessions for or against the theatre, and its uses or abuses. 
But the circumstance, that these two things should co-exist in the 
same state, is one which is worthy of being made prominent men- 
tion of. In 1849, an attempt was made in the local legislature of 
Connecticut to repeal the law prohibiting theatrical performances 
within its own territorial limits ; but the bill introduced for this 
purpose met with the most determined opposition — an opposition 
based not so much on objections to such amusements themselves, 
as on objections to that class of persons by whom they are usually 
supported, and whose increase in the state might be reasonably 
expected to follow an alteration in the law. The opposition pre- 
vailed, and the bill was almost unanimously rejected. But to 
return to the state provisions in the United States of America, for 
the education of the people. 

Maine, with a population of about 600,000 inhabitants, has per- 
manent school funds yielding an income of about 60,000 dollars, 
or above £12,000 sterling. Massachusetts, with a population con- 
siderably under a million, has public schools in which fully 80,000 
children are annually educated at the public expense ; and the state 
of New York, with a population approaching closely to 3,000,000, 
(in 1845 it was 2,604,495,) has a common school fund, the aggre- 
gate capital of which amounts to about half a million sterling ; 
while, from the general statistics of education in the state, it 
appears that, of the whole population, about four out of every 
thirteen were under instruction during some part of the year, in 
the elementary and more advanced branches of English education, 
and in the classical departments of the academies. 

Similar details might be given in reference to others of the states 
in the Union, all going to show that the education of the people 
has occupied, and continues to occupy, that attention in America, 
to which it is so well entitled. But it is not my intention either 
to compare the provisions in the different states, or to enter into 



214 CINCINNATI. 

details witli reference to any of them. My limits preclude, for 
the present, the possibility of my doing so. The object now is to 
illustrate, by the mention of a few indisputable facts, the general 
truth of the remark, that the state governments of the American 
Union have shown themselves most wisely provident, and alive to 
the best interests of their great republic, in the ample provisions 
they have made for placing a sound elementary education within 
the reach of every free inhabitant they contain. The words 
^^ wisely provident^' are here used advisedly, for, if there be a 
country in the world in which national provisions for education are 
more necessary, or more likely to be productive of beneficial re- 
sults, than another, it is in the American Union. The Constitu- 
tion of the American confederation appeals to the understanding. 
It is in the conviction of the thinking and intelligent mass, that 
it is the constitution best adapted for the country, and for the 
promotion of the general good, that its stability and permanence 
depend. And beside this, the American Union is yearly receiving 
into its bosom vast masses from the old countries of Europe, more 
particularly from England, Scotland, and Ireland. Many of these 
emigrants, no doubt, add to the intelligence, as they do to the 
population and wealth of the far ofi" land of their adoption ; but 
it is also true, and lamentably so, that many of them carry to 
America little save their poverty and their ignorance. If emi- 
grants of this class are to add much to the real strength and pros- 
perity of the nation, they, or at least their children, must be 
educated. To use the words of an esteemed professional friend in 
Cincinnati, (himself one of the truest and best friends of educa- 
tion to be found in any land,) whose letter on the subject is before 
me, this class of emigrants require not only to be Americanized, 
but to be in a great measure enlightened, civilized, and educated, 
ere they can be of much real benefit in assisting towards the on- 
ward progress of the land to which they have emigrated. 

While the general attention paid to the education of the people 
has thus been creditably great in almost the whole of the states, 
the state of Ohio, notwithstanding its comparitavely recent occu- 
pation and rapid growth, has not been behind in the race, as the 
following few statistics, with reference to the common schools of 
the town of Cincinnati, will sufficiently prove. 

In reference to the educational system pursued in its common 
schools, Cincinnati is divided into twelve districts. In each of 
these districts there is a school-house, having a male and also a 
female department, with a principal and assistant teachers presid- 
ing over each. The principal teachers over the male department 
have fifty dollars a month of salary, the assistants somewhat less. 
The principal teachers of the female departments have twenty- 



CINCINNATI. 215 

eight dollars a month, the assistants from sixteen to twenty dol- 
lars. In some of these district schools Grerman is taught in con- 
nection with English ; and as a large proportion of the population 
of Cincinnati is German, (a fact evinced by the numerous Ger- 
sign-boards and inscriptions you see as you go along the streets in 
certain parts of the town,) these schools are certainly a peculiarly 
interesting feature in the Cincinnati school system, and strongly 
illustrate the liberal and enlightened spirit under which they are 
conducted. 

Besides the twelve district schools, there is a central school, 
established in November 1848, for the farther education of such 
children above ten years of age as are found on examination to 
have a " competent knowledge of reading, writing, spelling, Eng- 
lish grammar, modern geography, mental and practical arithmetic, 
history of the United States, mental algebra or written algebra, 
to equations of the second degree.^' 

In the common schools the usual branches of an elementary 
education are taught, while in the central school the education is 
of a more advanced character, and includes Latin and Greek. As 
an adjunct to the whole, there is an orphan asylum school. 

The total number of pupils who attended the district schools of 
Cincinnati between October 1847 and October 1848 was 27,316, 
being an increase of above five thousand on the year previous. 

The above details, which are mainly taken from the nineteenth 
annual report of the trustees and visitors of the common schools 
of the city council of Cincinnati for the year ending June 30, 
1848, prepared under the authority of the board, by my able and 
excellent friend Bellamy Storer, Esq., (some time corresponding 
secretary, and last year the president of the board of trustees and 
visitors,) will sufficiently show that the general commendation of 
the school system of Cincinnati, with which I set out, was not 
without ample and sufficient foundation. 

That the efforts thus making, throughout nearly the whole of 
the American Union, to increase the knowledge of the general 
body of the people, may continue to prove eminently successful, 
must be the anxious and ardent prayer of every well-wisher of the 
great family of man. 

One of the greatest businesses carried on in Cincinnati is the 
killing, curing, and packing of hogs. More than 400,000 hogs 
were packed in Cincinnati up to January 1848, for the season 
1847-8 ; and for about two months of each year, the herds of 
these animals driven along certain of the streets leading from the 
river are almost continuous. Indeed, the statistics of the pork 
trade of the Western States, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, are so 
extraordinary as to be scarcely credible to those who have not seen 



216 CINCINNATI. 

the evidence of its extent. In 1847, tlie number of hogs brought 
to market from these three states was fully seven millions. 13ut 
the fact is, that the states above mentioned are peculiarly adapted 
for the culture of Indian corn, (called in America " corn '' par ex- 
cellence;^ and this food supplies not only the cheapest, but the 
best means for fattening these useful animals. 

Of the price paid for hogs in Cincinnati and its neighbourhood, I 
have no note taken when on the spot. But the price cannot, for 
very obvious reasons, be materially different from what it is in the 
immediately adjoining state of Kentucky ; and in or about Louisville, 
the largest city of that state, and itself a great market for the killing 
or curing of hogs, the prices varies from one dollar and a half (about 
6s. 6d.) to two dollars and a half, (10s. 6d.,) according to the weight 
— animals weighing 1751b. bringing the smaller sum, and those 
weighing above 2501b. the larger. 

The circumstances thus alluded to have led to the settlement at 
Cincinnati, and also in the town of Louisville, of sundry emigrants 
from the Emerald Isle, who, in these towns and their neighbour- 
hoods, exercise the trade and calling with which they were most 
familiar in " their own green isle." But it is not only Paddy who 
indulges in the hog-curing calling in these parts j a large proportion 
of the German settlers are engaged in the same trade ; and it must 
have been in this portion of the Union that the following case oc- 
curred. A German settler lost several valuable hogs, and, finding 
some animals exactly answering their general description in the pos- 
session of an American or English neighbour, he claimed them as 
his lost favourites, and went to law in vindication of his right to 
them, on his claim being disallowed. The proofs on both sides were 
balanced and conflicting, and the lawyers were at their wits' end, 
when it occurred to the advocate of the German claimant to demand 
the recall of his client's son, who had been one of the witnesses. On 
his recall, the counsel asked him if he was in the habit of calling his 
pokers, and how he called them. The answer was affirmative, and 
that he called them in German, and they answered to his call. 
Thereon the judge and jury adjourned to the defendant's hog-yard; 
and on the German vociferating his war-cry, the pigs he had claimed, 
and only those out of a very large flock, responded to his call. It is 
scarcely necessary to say that this piece of real evidence decided the 
question at issue. It is said of a certain great king that he charac- 
terised German as the language most adapted to horses, but this pro- 
bably was the first instance of its ever being supposed to be best 
suited to the capacity of pigs. 

The extensive trade in the rearing and killing of pigs, is generally 
supposed to be somewhat adverse to a spirit of cleanliness, and per- 
haps it may be partly owing to this that Cincinnati suffered so greatly 



RAIL TO SANDUSKY. 217 

from cholera about the time of the visit in question in 1849. The 
epidemic had begun to be felt, but had not reached its height when 
I was in the city; but there is now before me a letter, dated 30th 
July 1849, written to me by an influential professional gentleman in 
Cincinnati — one who interests himself constantly and warmly in 
everything that conduces to the well-being of his fellows, in which 
he says — " Since you left us, our city has been terribly scourged ; 
we have lost nearly five thousand of our people by the pestilence that 
has everywhere prevailed/' He adds, that the ravages of cholera 
were even then prevalent, although " present indications are decidedly 
favourable to the rapid decline;" while I find it stated in a Cincin- 
nati newspaper of a subsequent date, that above 6000 had perished, 
and that there were fully 2500 houses in the city then unoccupied 
and to let. It appears that the greatest mortality was for the thirty- 
one days ending 16th July 1849, and that the daily average of 
deaths during that time was one hundred and seventeen. The largest 
proportion of deaths was among the foreign population, the compara- 
tive numbers being, of emigrants 70.1 — Americans, 22.6 — the dif- 
ference being no doubt caused mainly by the fact of the new-comers 
being as yet unaccustomed to the climate, and ignorant what food to 
take and what to avoid. 

Leaving Cincinnati at the somewhat inconvenient hour of five 
o'clock in the morning, a ride of about sixteen hours in railway cars 
brings you to the city of Sandusky, on the shores of Lake Erie. The 
distance travelled is only 217 miles; and if the time occupied in the 
transit would seem to indicate an unusually slow speed for railway 
travelling, it must be remembered that this line (for it is literally 
one line) of rails, runs through a comparatively unpeopled country : 
and although one of its termini is at the populous improving town of 
Cincinnati, the other is at Sandusky, which, although specially re- 
joicing in the ambitious title of Sandusky city, is nevertheless only a 
a sparsedly built village, containing a population which does not ex- 
ceed 2500 inhabitants. In making this journey I heard sundry 
sneers, on the part not merely of Old but of New Englanders, on the 
subject of Western railways, particularly when the career of the train 
was stopped, and the steam-whistle was loudly sounded, until intru- 
sive cattle or hogs were frightened off the line. I could not, how- 
ever, sympathise to any extent in the severity of my English or 
Yankee friends on the subject of Western railways. Surely it is 
better to have one line of railway, and cars travelling on it at the 
rate of" fifteen miles an hour, than no line of railway at all ; and if 
the profits of working the railway from Cincinnati to Sandusky only 
sufiice, in the course of a few years, to the accumulation of wealth 
sufficient to lay down a railway of more English-like capabilities and 

19 



21S SANDUSKY CITY. 

pretensions, the parties who own the present works will be entitled 
to have the laugh quite the other way. 

An American railway car has been too frequently described, to 
render description on my part either necessary or likely to be inter- 
esting. The main feature is the absence of different classes of car- 
riages, it being seemingly assumed by the directors, that in a coun- 
try of republican equality, every one must be ready to adopt the 
same mode, and be content with the same accommodation, when 
travelling. For myself, I do not complain much of the arrangement, 
although it appeared to me then, as it does now, that it was nothing 
short of downright tyranny. Because A cannot, or will not, pay 
two dollars for his seat in a car, why should B be compelled (for it 
amounts to compulsion when there is no other mode of transit, or 
none equally good,) to be content with the comforts and accommo- 
dation that can be purchased for one dollar ? This, however, is but 
one of the many developments of that tyranny of the many, which 
unquestionably prevails to a very large extent in the United States 
of America. For the present the government is in the hands of the 
Whigs, and I should think that every true friend of the land of 
stars and stripes would wish that it were long to (Continue so. The 
grand policy of that government is decidedly, and almost necessarily, 
conservative; accordingly, in private, some of the most intelligent 
men belonging to the Whig party, hesitate not to acknowledge that 
the real danger which the federal constitution has to dread, arises 
from the too rapid growth of the democratic principle — from the 
tendency everywhere observable of referring all power to the mass 
of the people — of taking every opportunity of appealing to " the 
people,^^ and flattering their prejudices by making them the source 
of all power. For an illustration of the operation of this democra- 
tic tendency, I was indebted to an intelligent military officer of the 
United States — a gentleman who had held the rank of general in 
the Mexican army, up to the time the United States declared war 
against that feeble sister republic, and who now holds a high place 
in one of the military colleges in the United States. He mentioned 
that, in one of the Western States — Louisiana, I think — much ex- 
citement prevailed at the time, in consequence of its having been 
mooted, as a weapon of popularity, to have the local judges annually 
elected, and by the voice of the general body of citizens. The ques- 
tion had been debated in the local legislature, and the resolution 
there come to was to leave the question of a change to be determined 
by the majority of the electors themselves. Once mooted, the 
representatives of the people would not face the odium and unpopu- 
larity of deciding it in such a way as excluded the people from 
power. Could anything more strongly show the tyranny of the vox 



AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 219 

populi, wben all considerations are made to give way to it? If there 
be one question in government better settled than another by the 
wisdom of ages, it is that the judges who are to administer the laws, 
who are to hold the balance of justice, should be elected for life, 
without consideration of party or of party politics, and made as 
independent as possible of all considerations of a political character. 
But the above is only one of many illustrations of the manner in 
which the really judicious statesmen in America seem trammelled 
and gagged by considerations of policy and popularity. Again and 
again, and in every quarter, was I struck with the different tone of 
sentiment which pervaded the remarks of my intelligent Whig 
friends in private, as compared with what they said in public. It 
would seem that, in private, they universally spolie their own 
thoughts, while in public the one ruling consideration was what might 
or would be thought by the mass of the people. This is surely to be 
deeply regretted as fraught with evil tendencies, particularly in a 
country which is annually receiving into its bosom vast numbers of 
European emigrants, most if not all of whom are drawn from the 
most democratic portions of European society. It were well, I think, 
that the wise and good of the United States were to reflect more on 
this important fact, — viz. that the elements of society, drawn by them 
annually from the old countries, have many of them a strong leaning 
in favour of levelling principles, even before they set their feet on 
the shores of the great republic. It may be — it is — no doubt true, 
as stated in the annual report of the Cincinnati schools for 1848, now 
before me, that America must, " for many years to come, be the home 
of thousands who will have left Europe to escape oppression.^^ But 
it is also true, that the thousands whom such causes have moved to 
emigrate to America are outnumbered by the advocates for license, 
the pretended victims of an imaginary oppression. Judging from the 
foolish paragraphs relative to European affairs, which so often deform 
the pages of the newspaper press in the United States, there seems 
to be a great appetite for the intelligence regarding the ^^ tyrannical 
governments of Europe.^' No absurdity, on this subject, seems too 
gross or too extravagant for the popular taste. The rhapsodies of 
some of the American newspapers on the subject of the late outbreak 
in Ireland, exceeded in violence and absurdity of falsehood even the 
most lying effusions of The Nation. The ravings of such men as 
Smith O'Brien, Mitchell, Meagher, et hoc genus omne, were lauded 
as the height of political wisdom, and the utterers themselves held 
forth to the public as patriots and martyrs, instead of being simply 
and truly characterized as charlatans, impostors, or political empirics. 
This may be all very well as regards the sale of a newspaper, and the 
mass of the United States' public may be forgiven many widely erro- 
neous notions regarding England and Euglishmcn, and English free- 



220 CLEVELAND. 

dom, wlien they have to gather their opinions from such impure 
sources, or from the equally inaccurate statements of the renegade 
sons of Great Britain who take refuge on their shores. But the wise 
and dispassionate of the republic will do well to remember, that while 
they are a republic — and while a large element in a republican form 
of government is the democratic principle — there are foreign ingre- 
dients annually mixed with the native mass, which have all a ten- 
dency to strengthen the principle referred to. Washington — the 
truly great Washington — although a republican, was very far from 
being a democrat; no one saw more clearly, or inculcated more 
strongly than he did, the necessity of discipline and subordination, to 
insure the continued prosperity of that Union which he was so in- 
strumental in forming. 

Mais revenons a nos mouions — to return to Sandusky City, which 
affords a fair specimen of the village cities of the United States of 
America. Standing on a bay which opens into Lake Erie — and 
communicating with New York, on the one hand, by means of the 
lakes, canals, and railways, and with New Orleans on the other, 
by means of the Cincinnati railway, the Ohio, and the Mississippi, 
Sandusky seems destined, at one period or another, to assume the 
magnitude which is presupposed in the term " city f but for the 
present it is but a village, and not a very large village either, con- 
taining about 2500 inhabitants, and having only a few streets, or 
rather roads, which are destined to be streets when the interstices or 
vacant spaces have been occupied by buildings. 

Leaving Sandusky early in the morning by the steamer for 
Buffalo, you arrive early next morning at the latter place On 
going down the lake, the steamer touches at Cleveland ; and I took 
advantage of the two hours occupied by " coaling" at that place, 
to visit the town, and was very much pleased that I had done so : 
for although there is, in the broad road-like streets and sparsedly- 
sprinkled buildings of Cleveland, much to include it in the same 
category with Sandusky, there is unquestionably great taste dis- 
played in the general laying-out of the town. The streets are very 
broad ; they are also at right angles one with another, and well 
planted with trees for shade. The present population of Cleveland 
numbers about twelve thousand. It boasts a medical college, 
which, although a recent establishment, is represented as being in 
a very flourishing condition ; and, like most of the small towns of 
America, Cleveland rejoices in a number of churches — above 
twenty ; a number which seems unusually great, considering the 
comparative smallness of the population. Cleveland also enjoys 
the advantage of a very fine harbour on Lake Erie, which harbour 
is protected by two piers jutting out into the inland sea. It also 
communicates with the Ohio, on the other side of the state, by 



THE LAKES. 221 

means of a canal ; and being thus connected, by direct lines of 
water communication, with the Mississippi on the one side, and 
with New York and Canada on the other, and situated in the 
midst of a great wheat-producing country, there is everything to 
justify the expectation that Cleveland in Ohio, will, in course of 
time, attain the position of a very important, and the appearance 
of a very handsome, city. 

Lake Erie, although standing only fourth amongst the American 
lakes in point of magnitude, is fully entitled to the appellation I 
have above given it — namely, that of an inland sea. Its extreme 
length is 240 miles, and its average width is nearly 40 miles. The 
larger lakes are — Lake Superior, which is 420 miles long, and of 
an average breadth of about 100 miles ; Lake Michigan, which is 
340 miles long, by about 60 miles broad ; and Lake Huron, which 
is 270 miles long, with an average width of about 70 miles. These 
gigantic fresh-water lakes are connected together throughout their 
whole extent ; and the reflection that the river Niagara, to whose 
stupendous falls I was now rapidly approaching, formed the only 
natural outlet for the vast body of water (about one half the fresh 
water on the whole surface of the globe) wliich is contained within 
the areas of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie, deepened 
the impressiveness of the feelings with which I now approached a 
scene that had ofttimes been present to my imagination from the 
days of my boyhood, floating among the ideas of my mind in a 
sort of misty, dreamy indistinctness. The impression that I now 
stood within a few miles of the great fall was paramount to every 
other ; and only stopping for a few hours in the bustling, busy, 
town of Bufi'alo, (which is situated in the state of New York, and 
forms, as it were, the very centre of the canal and lake navigation, 
and railroad communication,) so as to enable me to take a rapid 
drive through it — thereby seeing enough to justify the afiirmation, 
that the town of Bufi'alo is a rising, rapidly improving city, plea- 
santly situated on the borders of Lake Erie, at the head of the 
river Niagara — I proceeded by rail to the village and Falls of 
Niagara. The distance is only about eleven miles, and may be 
traversed either by railway, along the banks of the river Niagara, 
or down the river itself by means of the steamer. I chose the 
former mode, but a comparison of notes with intelligent scenery- 
loving friends satisfied me that the latter was the best ) and when 
I next approach Niagara from the side of Lake Erie, it is my in- 
tention to do so by means of the steamboat. On arrival at the 
village, or place of debarkation, the first visit will naturally be to 
the world-renowned 

19* 



222 FALLS OF NIAGARA. 



FALLS OF NIAGARA ; 

and, strange as the remark may at first sight appear, I would add, 
that the sooner this first visit is paid, and over, the better. Those 
who have visited the scene will understand the observation. The 
first few minutes of the contemplation was to me positively pain- 
ful, and left an oppressiveness on my spirits for all the rest of the 
day. It was not that I was disappointed — that I could not say ; 
and yet the cataracts were something very different from what I 
had conceived them to be. But the preconception and the reality 
were so totally unlike, that comparison of the one with the other 
was completely out of the question ; and that reality was so great, 
that disappointment was equally precluded from my feelings. I 
felt oppressed, however, by the first view ; and the companion who 
accompanied me acknowledged, as we sat together in the evening 
listening to the roar, that such also was his experience. It was 
with a feeling of relief that I turned away from the scene ) and it 
was not till I had been at Niagara for some days, and had visited 
these glorious Falls at *all hours, and for hours together, that I felt 
from the contemplation of them that satisfaction (I cannot think of 
a better world) which I had anticipated. 

Oniawgara, or the Thunder of Waters, is the expressive Indian 
name for these cataracts. Before visiting them, I had seen many 
views, and read many descriptions of them, and attempted to form 
some adequate idea of their dimensions and appearance by studying 
their statistics. But although I thereby acquired some knowledge 
of the feelings with which the view had inspired others, and ascer- 
tained the enormous number of tons of water that continually pour 
over this precipice of 160 feet high, and that have continued cease- 
lessly so to do, probably, since creation first began, and while gene- 
ration after generation of men have been disappearing from the face 
of the globe ; I cannot say that such studies in any measure pre- 
pared me for the scene I actually witnessed. For this reason I will 
not attempt any detailed description of the Falls, or of their con- 
comitant rapids and whirlpool, but content myself with noting down 
such suggestions, as to the mode of seeing them, as may spare some 
after visitor a little of the unnecessary trouble I encountered myself, 
and aid him in making the best use of his time ; to which I will add 
on or two remarks as to those points which appeared to me to form 
the distinctive characteristics of the magnificent scene. 

These, the most stupendous cataracts in the world, lie partly in 
the state of New York and partly in the British possessions of Ca- 
nada. Near the middle of the river, but rather on the American 
side of it; stands Goat Island — or, as it ought to be called. Iris Is- 



FALLS OF NIAGARA. 223 

land, that being the name assigned to it by its proprietor, and to 
•which it is well entitled, by the numerous spray-created rainbows 
that play in the vicinity of it. This island contains about seventy 
acres of land, and by it the river is divided at the Fall, and for a 
considerable space above it — the main body of the stream passing 
down on the south-western side, and being precipitated over what is 
called the Canadian, or (in allusion to its shape) " The Crescent or 
Horse-shoe FalF'; and the lesser portion passing on the north-eastern 
side of Iris Island, and falling over the American Fall. But the 
waters falling over the American Fall are divided previous to, and 
at the point of their descent. After passing the upper end of Iris 
Island, they are divided by what is called Bath Island, and by some 
smaller ones ; and at the point where they are precipitated over the 
cliff, they are separated by a very small island, called in the guide- 
books Prospect Island, but named by my informant by the more 
euphonious name of Luna Island. The comparatively small portion 
of waters which falls over between Goat Island and Prospect Island 
is known as the '^ Centre Cascade" ; and this fall is from the highest 
point of the precipice, the height of the descent here being 162 feet, 
while the height of the American Fall, which lies between Prospect 
Island and the state of New York, is 160 feet — the Horse-shoe Fall 
being of lesser altitude by a few feet. 

The above general description will be sufficient to show that these 
falls, to be properly seen, must be viewed not only from below as 
well as above, but from both sides of the river; and, as there is 
ample accommodation for the reception of travellers on both sides, 
much is said and written as to which is the best side whence to view 
the falls. The guide-books being chiefly manufactured in the United 
States, of course, and with a natural enough preference, generally 
say all they can to induce the traveller to take up his abode at Nia- 
gara village, on the New York side. I did so, and 1 certainly have 
every reason to write, with unqualified eulogy, of the comfort and 
attention felt and experienced in the Cataract Hotel. But the fact is 
indisputable, that by far the finest view of the falls is that obtained 
from the other side of the river. From the door or from the win- 
dows of Clifton House, which is the name of the principal hotel on 
the Canada side, the view is grand in the extreme — infinitely more 
so than any other general view that can be taken of these stupen- 
dous cataracts. In front lies the great Horse-shoe Fall, with its sea 
of waters continuously pouring over the precipice into a caldron of 
scarcely known depth, whence a constant cloud of spray springs up, 
encircling, and sometimes obscuring, the fall itself. On the left is 
the scarcely less magnificent American Fall, hurrying onward — the 
waters discharging themselves over the precipice they have to encoun- 
ter, as if impatient to join the kindred waters from which they have 



224 FALLS OF NIAGARA. 1 

been so lately separated, and regardless of the obstacles which in- 
terpose to resist their doing so ; while between the two there sparkles 
in the sunbeams the noble Centre Cascade — a fall which would be 
in itself an object of attraction and gratification in any other pre- 
sence than that of its monster brethren. 

For this reason — namely, because it places constantly before his 
observation the most imposing general view of the falls, and also 
because the more, and the oftener, and the longer, these falls are 
viewed, the more will they fill the mind of the contemplative visitor 
— I advise the traveller not to follow my example, by taking up his 
abode exclusively on the American side, but, after living two or three 
days on that side, (whence Goat Island, &c., is alone approachable,) 
to cross over and take up his residence for at least two or three days 
longer on the Canadian side. 

1 have already said that, despite the fact that the Falls of Niagara 
had been the subject of my dreams almost from boyhood, and not- 
withstanding my having read at least half-a-dozen attempts at de- 
scription of them, I found, when I stood in view of these cataracts, 
that I really had not had any preconception of them whatever. Thus 
I feel it will ever be. The only thing that struck me on this sub- 
ject was, that whereas, in my preconceptions, I had surrounded the 
Falls of Niagara with many elements of grandeur, separate and in- 
dependent of the mere waterfall itself; when I stood on the spot, 
when expectation and imagination had been swallowed up in the 
reality, it was the falls — the falls alone — that occupied my attention 
and filled up the view. Above the falls, and at the point where the 
sea tumbles over the precipice, there is no mountainously grand 
scenery to attract or distract the attention. The broad and deep, but 
clear and rapid river flows smoothly along from the waters of Lake 
Erie, with a hasty but unbroken current, until it begins to be divided 
by the islands above the falls, as it approaches the brow, as it were, 
of the mountain ridge on which it is flowing. Before being so di- 
vided, the river is nearly two miles broad. After being divided, and 
as it approaches the upper end of Goat Island, the channel contracts, 
and the waters accelerate their course. Down the rapids they hasten, 
boiling and agitated, as with a consciousness of the fearful plunge 
that lies before them ; but still preserving enough of their calmness 
and continuity, as to sweep over the verge of the precipice in one 
unbroken and continuous stream. The great depth of water, at the 
point where it commences its fearful perpendicular descent, ere it 
breaks into crisping foam — which it does not do until it has fallen 
some twenty or thirty yards — is powerfully exhibited in the sea-green 
colour of the water about the centre of the Horse-shoe Fall. Indeed 
this sea-like colour, and the continuity (so to speak) of the waters 
themselves; at the point where the descent commences; form two of 



FALLS OF NIAGARA. 225 

the facts connected with the Falls of the Niagara that now present 
themselves most vividly to my recollection. Shortly below the falls, 
the depth of the water is about 250 feet; but there, and for some 
miles, and down as far as Lewistown or Queenstown, the river is 
f!;reatly pent in. I could not learn that any attempt had ever been 
made, or could be made, for ascertaining the exact depth of the 
river at or about the centre of the Crescent Fall, ere it throws itself 
from the top of the precipice, but the green colour alluded to shows 
that it must be very great. 

The Indians had a superstition that the genius who presided over 
the Falls of Niagara required the annual sacrifice, at this his shrine, 
of at least two human victims. Ere the Red man lost this part of 
his once broad but now contracted possessions, the supposed merciless 
Spirit of the Cataract was scarcely ever disappointed or defrauded of 
his victims. At least two human beings have annually passed into 
eternity, by disappearing over the falls, for as far back as any annals 
of these cataracts exist. Since the white man succeeded to the 
proprietorship, the number of such victims has certainly not dimin- 
ished. His habitual enterprize and daring have multiplied them 
greatly ; and many are the harrowing accounts of such fearful acci- 
dents to be found in the guide-books, or to be heard from the narra- 
tives of the guides, who here, as in all such places of general resort, 
haunt and occasionally annoy you. Even about the time of my visit, 
and within a few days of it, an accident occurred, second in point of 
lamentable, harrowing incident to none of those which have pre- 
ceded it. Having stood on the very point whence the victims were 
precipitated, and that immediately before the accident took place, and 
having the whole of terrific event graphically present to my mental 
vision, the scene has often since recurred to my recollection — par- 
ticularly during the hours of midnight — with a startling vividness 
and personality which is excessively painful. The lamentable cir- 
cumstance to which I refer was shortly as follows. Names are re- 
pressed in the narrative, because, unlikely though it be that this 
book shall fall into the hands of any one connected with the 
victims, it is still a possible thing that it should do so; and I would 
run the hazard of giving pain where I could avoid the possibility of 
doing so. Besides, names are not necessary to give touching effect 
to such an incident, which is one of recent occurrence and well 
known, at least in the localities where it occurred, or which it 
affected. 

A party of pleasure, composed chiefly of the members of two fami- 
lies about to be more closely united by intermarriage, had visited 
the Falls of Niagara from the New York side, and were enjoying 
the superb view of them to be witnessed from Iris Island and the 
neighbouring little Prospect Island. One of the party, a little girl 



226 FALLS OF NIAGARA. 

of about twelve years old, with the giddiness natural to her years, 
had gone too near the water and the precipice, and had been repeat- 
edly called back. On repeating the inconsiderateness, a young gen- 
tleman, the affianced of the sister of the child, followed her to bring 
her back, and having caught her by the dress, playfully attempted 
to frighten her, by holding her forwards towards the water, as if he 
would drop her into the river. Fearful to narrate, the part of the 
dress by which he held the child gave way in his grasp, the child 
fell into the hurrying, eddying, tossing waters. In a vain hope of 
saving her, or maddened to desperation by the scene, the youth 
sprang after her, and both were instantly launched into eternity, by 
being thrown with great force over the precipice into the boiling 
caldron below. It is scarcely necessary to add that the dead bodies 
were not found for some days afterwards, and then at or about the 
whirlpool, a considerable distance down the river. 

Many such incidents have occurred through the temerity of 
visitors at Niagara. Some years ago a young lady lost her life by 
going too near, and falling over the precipice on the other side of the 
river ; and the unfortunate event is chronicled, on a board exhibited 
by one of those persons who earn a precarious livelihood in the 
vicinity of the falls, in lines strongly suggestive of the fact of how 
nearly, in this world, that which is ludicrous approaches, if it be not 
allied to, that which is sublime. The doggrel inscription sets out 
with a compliment to the whole race of womankind^ and is in these 
words — 

" Woman, most beauteous of the human race, 
Be cautious of a dangerous place, 

Foi' here Miss at hventy-ihree 

Was launched into eternity.''^ 

It is to be hoped that, if any poet of the falls attempts to chroni- 
cle the event which sent Mr. A and his little friend to an un- 
timely tomb, he may be more successful in his endeavours, by nar^ 
rating the story in verses worthy of its touching truth. 

Before visiting Niagara, I had heard much of the great distance 
at which the cataract makes itself both seen and heard — seen by its 
clouds of mist and spray, and heard by its deep booming and un- 
ceasing roar. I cannot say that my expectations in these respects 
were gratified; on the contrary, I did not see the spray, neither did 
I hear the sound, many miles off. But these are matters which 
depend so much on the direction of the wind, and on the nature of 
the weather, as well as on the acuteness of vision and of hearing in 
different individuals, that I merely notice that the fact was so. But 
the roar of the cataract itself, as you stand before it, is quite another 
matter. With that I was not disappointed, although I cannot at 



FALLS OF NIAGARA. 227 

present remember any sound I can liken it to so as to give a fitting 
idea of its nature — 

" Only itself can be its parallel." 

It is like the voice of thunder as I have heard it on the Mississippi, 
and also among the mountains of my native land — it is like the noise 
of the contending elements of wind and rain, as I have heard them 
in a storm on the ocean — it is like the roaring of the surf, as I have 
heard it breaking among the islands of the Hebridean sea, after hav- 
ing crossed the broad Atlantic — it is like all these, and all these 
combined; but it has a sound peculiar to itself — a sound which im- 
pressed me with deeper awe than any noise I had ever heard before. 
How is it that, in such a scene, the heart so longs for solitude ? To 
be alone is the predominating desire ; and yet how little does one 
feel alone on such an occasion, when no human eye rests on the view 
but your own ! The voice of the living cataract speaks in your very 
ears ; it thunders forth eternity ; it tells you of a power which is 
illimitable — of a Being who is omnipotent in His majesty, as well 
as eternal in His duration. And even while you feel that, as a 
mere man, you are gazing on a something which is far beyond your 
capacity to form, or your power to control, you feel at the same 
time that there is an omnipotent Being to whom that great waterfall 
is but as ^^ a drop in the bucket ;" and that you are allied to Him 
by a never-dying principle, which places even you supremely above 
and beyond the most stupendous of nature's formations ; — a some- 
thing which will live and may luxuriate among the boundless works 
of Him, an emblem of whose majesty and might you are here con- 
templating, even when that noble cataract shall have ceased to flow. 
Most truthfully can I affirm that, never do I remember of being so 
deeply impressed with the almost sense of a present Deity, than I 
was as I stood alone, and at a late hour on a moonlight night, con- 
templating from the Table Rock the waters of the Niagara, as they 
tumbled successively and continuously, and with a ceaseless roar, 
over the precipice of the Great or the Horse-shoe Fall. Dickens' 
description of his feelings at Niagara is one of the very few parts of 
Notes on America that seem to me worthy of his fame as a descrip- 
tive writer. In particular, I can fully sympathise with him in the 
passage in which he says — " It was not until I came on Table Rock 
and looked — great heaven ! on what a fall of bright green water — 
that it came upon me in its full might and majesty. 

^^ Then, when I felt how near my Creator I was standing, the 
first effect and the enduring one, instant and lasting, of the tre- 
mendous spectacle, was Peace ! — peace of mind, tranquillity, calm 
recollections of the dead, great thoughts of eternal rest and happi- 
ness, nothing of gloom and terror — Niagara was at once stamped 



228 FALLS OF NIAGARA. 

upon my heart an image of beauty, to remain there changeless and 
indelible, until its pulses cease to beat for ever. 

" Oh, how the strife and trouble of our daily life receded from 
my view, and lessened in the distance, during the ten memorable, 
days we passed on that enchanted ground ! What voices spoke 
from out the thundering waters ! — what faces, faded from the earth, 
looked out upon me from its gleaming depths ! — what heavenly 
promise glistened in these angels' tears, the drops of many hues, 
that showered around and twined themselves above the gorgeous 
arches which the changing rainbow made \" 

There is not — I know and feel that there is not — the slightest 
shade of exaggeration in the statement that, in every word of this 
most beautiful description of the effects, the abiding effects, pro- 
duced in the mind by contemplating this sea falling over this 
mountain range, I can most fully sympathize ; and, as I could not 
hope to describe the scene in terms as eloquent, I see nothing ob- 
jectionable in borrowing part of his description, at same time that 
I acknowledge the source whence I have received it. Even now, 
in the hour at which I write, amidst the scenery of my native 
much-loved land, and with all nature lying around me in deep 
repose, and everything still around me, there is nothing of the 
past — nothing connected with my journeyings by land or by sea — 
that I can more readily recall than the realities of Niagara. I can 
see vividly, though but in mental vision, the broad deep river 
coming on in smiling placidity, as unconscious of its dreadful fate; 
Anon some symptoms of feeling pervade its waters. It tosses and 
tumbles, as if it would strive against its fate, but yet onward, on- 
ward it comes ; and when it sees its fate to be inevitable, it meets 
that destiny with calmness and resolution, as it quietly falls over 
into the abyss in one continuous sheet ; while from below there 
rises a veil of mist and vapour, as if gracefully to conceal the 
death-struggles of the river from the view of the spectator. 

The concomitants of the falls are the rapids above them, and the 
whirlpool and suspension-bridge below them. All of these are 
well worthy of inspection : in particular both the rapids and the 
whirlpool deserve, and will repay, a lengthened visit. It is the 
phraseology of the guide-books, and even of some tourists, to speak 
of the rapids and whirlpool as almost as wondrous as the falls 
themselves ; but this is simply nonsene. They are extraordinary 
and wonderful; they are not magnificent. As appendages to the 
falls, they are worthy appendages. Apart from the falls, there 
would not be much in either of them, although the writers I have 
alluded to speak of the whirlpool as fully as dangerous, if not as 
wonderful, as the great Maelstroom whirlpool on the Norwegian 
coast. 



FALLS OF NL\GARA. 229 

Of the two "rapids/' I prefer those immediately above the 
Crescent Fall, Both rapids are best seen from Groat Island. The , 
whirlpool should be viewed both from the top of the bank and 
from below. The scene above is very different from that beneath ; 
and it is only by viewing it in both positions that you become fully 
alive to the great power of the circling eddies. 

The suspension-bridge, which has been thrown across the river 
at the distance of about a mile below the falls, is a remarkable 
work, although, in these days of engineering talent and enterprise 
— an age which witnesses a railway carried by tubes across the 
Menai Straits — it seemed to me that my transatlantic friends were 
disposed to make somewhat too much of the difficulty and mag- 
nitude of the undertaking. Still, to throw a bridge across the 
river Niagara, at the point in question, was a work requiring no 
mean mechanical skill and attention. The contractor was a Mr. 
Ellett. Having established the first connexion by means of a kite, 
Mr.- Ellett, after successively replacing a string with a rope, and 
the rope with a wire cable one inch in diameter, was himself carried 
over in a car suspended from the latter. The distance between 
the bridge and the surface of the water is 230 feet; the depth of 
the water below the bridge is 250 feet; the length of the bridge is 
650 feet, crossing a river of nearly 350 feet in breadth. The pre- 
sent bridge is merely a temporary erection, intended to give place 
to a more substantial structure. But even the present erection 
affords accommodation for the passage not merely of foot passen- 
gers, but of carriages and horses, from the Canadian to the Ameri- 
can shore — these latter, however, being only allowed to cross it 
slowly, and at a walking pace. 

When viewing the Falls of Niagara, I felt it difficult to repress 
the wish that I could have seen them when some stupendous object 
of man's fashioning were precipitated over the precipice and into 
the abyss, were it only to have ocular demonstration of the feeble- 
ness of human power to contend with this cataract of nature's 
forming ; and probably no one will ever see " the Falls" to greater 
advantage than did those who saw the steam-ship Caroline pass 
over the main cataract in a burning state, at midnight, in the month 
of December, 1847. With the political view of that matter — 
whether the act was justifiable or unjustifiable — I have here noth- 
ing to do. I have my opinions on the subject, but it were foreign 
to the nature of this work to make any mention of what these 
views are ; besides, there are a sufficient number of the extrava- 
gant and over-zealous, on both sides of the Atlantic, to keep up 
any little soreness that the burning of this steamer by the British 
may have excited at the time of the event. That such soreness 
exists is, however, but too evident ; and it would be strange were 

20 



230 LEWISTOWN— QUEENSTOWN. 

it to happen that Canada should be annexed to the United States 
through the agency and instrumentality, and with the wishes, of 
those very British who were instrumental in creating the irritation 
referred to by the forcible seizure and burning of the Caroline. 

But it is with the destruction of the Caroline, not as a political,' 
but as a picturesque, affair, I have here to do.^ At midnight, in a 
winter's night, a party of men from the Canadian shore boarded the 
Caroline, as she lay moored at Navy Island — cut her out, set her on 
fire, cast her loose, then abandoned her, and left the blazing vessel 
to drift slowly down, casting a lurid light on the surrounding objects, 
until the whole was suddenly, instantaneously quenched, as the 
doomed vessel disappeared over the great or Crescent Fall. It must 
have been a very imposing sight. 



CHAPTER XT. 

" These are thy glorious -works, thou Source of good- 
How dimly seen, how faintly understood ! 
Thine, and upheld by thy paternal care, 
This universal frame, thus wondrous fair. 
Thy power divine, and bounty beyond thought, 
Adored and praised in all that thou hast wrought." 

COWPER. 

It was with much reluctance that, after spending at Niagara one of 
the best remembered weeks of my life, I resumed my journeyings, 
by proceeding onward, by horse-drawn railway carriage, from Niagara 
to Lewistown. Before leaving the scene which had afforded me such 
deep delight, and which I know not if I may be spared and privi- 
leged again to see, I spent the forenoon in revisiting the various 
views that had most deeply impressed me ; and these last looks are 
among the most vivid of my recollections : they also supplied me 
with much food for reflection in my after wanderings — 

" Adieu to thee again — a last adieu ! 
There can be no farewell to scenes like thine: 
My mind is coloured by thy every hue." 

The village of Lewistown is situated on the Niagara, immediately 
before it enters the waters of Lake Ontario. It is on the American 
side of the river, and on the opposite or Canadian side stands the 
picturesque improving town of Queenstown. From one or other of 
these places there are constant opportunities of proceeding down 
Lake Ontario by some one of the numerous and very superior steam- 
ers which ply upon the lake, carrying the British standard or the 
American flag, just as ownership or interest dictates. At Lewistown 
or Queenstown^ or rather shortly before reaching them^ the river 



BROCK'S MONUMENT. 231 

Niagara emerges from the gorge or valley in which it has been flow- 
ing ever since it sustained its trying fall at the village of Niagara. 
The fact that the highlands thns continue down to Queenstown, and 
that the river between the Niagara and Queenstown flows at a level 
so much below that of the surrounding country, has given rise to 
the opinion that, at some long antecedent period, the falls were 
situated about that point of the river opposite which the town of 
Queenstown now stands. In theory, there is much to be said in 
favour of this view of the matter 3 but the difficulty is to assign a 
date when this retrocession of the falls can have taken place, inas- 
much as the oldest description of them extant — and there are some 
very old ones — describe them as occupying very much the same 
position, and exhibiting very much the same shape and appearance, 
that they do now. If the receding was gradual, it must have taken 
many thousands of years for the falls to have worked back from 
Queenstown to Niagara. If sudden, and by a convulsive operation 
of nature within the annals of time, it is incredible that some tra- 
dition of the event has not been handed down among the Indians 
who composed the Six Nations which formerly occupied and pos- 
sessed the territory lying on the banks of the river Niagara. More- 
over, written accounts of the falls, at a period more than a century 
anterior to the present date, are in existence, and these indicate no 
retrocession of the river, or any material alteration in the position, 
or in the general appearance and features, of the falls themselves. 

The view from the top of the hill, as you descend upon the river 
of Lewistown, is exceedingly picturesque. Before and immediately 
under you stands the village of Lewistown, with the town of Queens- 
town on the opposite side of the river ; while on the heights above 
Queenstown towers a monument to the memory of Lieut.-General 
Brock, which, though now almost in ruins, forms a very imposing 
object in the view. On the left hand, as you enter the village, flows 
the broad, deep, clear Niagara river, moving swiftly, but yet in calm 
grandeur, almost as if it were taking time to recover from the effects 
of its late extravagance, and as yet only partially successful in its 
eff"orts to assume a less vexed appearance ; while, to complete the 
picture, the deep blue sea-like waters of Lake Ontario are seen 
stretching beyond and before you, and away into the extreme dis- 
tance. 

In reference to the present dilapidated condition of the monument 
erected to the memory of the gallant Brock — which appearance 
arises from the unsuccessful attempt of a miserable miscreant to blow 
it up with gunpowder, during the insurrection which occurred in 
Canada in 1837 and 1838 — I could not help heartily execrating the 
dastardly spirit that could take such a mode of exhibiting either its 
politics or its passions. I audibly expressed myself to this effect, in 



232 OSWEGO. 

the society of sorae United States tradesmen, who were going down 
from Niagara to Lewistown on a trip of pleasure, and who occupied 
the car with me. On so doing, I was delighted to find that not even 
national prejudice could blunt their sense of the miserable impropriety 
of such an act: one and all of them joined me most heartily, by 
expressing their detestation of the heartless dastard by whom it was 
committed. 

Arrived at Lewistown, we immediately proceeded on board the 
American steamer, yclept the Lady of the Lake, and speedily un- 
mooring, the power of the steamer, aided by the rapidity of the cur- 
rent — which here runs at the rate of about seven miles an hour^ 
very soon brought us into the waters of Lake Ontario. The scenery 
of the lower part of the Niagara is very pleasing, as is also that por- 
tion of the American side of the lake which I saw ere the shades of 
evening closed on the view. But I find I have especially noted the 
colour of the waters, both of the river and the lake, as remarkable 
as well as pleasing. Clear, bright^ and sparkling, the foam created 
by the movement of the paddles of the steamer seemed to me to 
have a creaminess and a consistency superior to the froth of ordinary 
water. But perchance the recollection of the brown muddy-looking 
waters of the Mississippi was then fresh in my memory, and ren- 
dered the waters of a purer stream more beautiful and grateful by 
the contrast. 

Lake Ontario stands only fifth among the gigantic lakes of the 
New World in point of magnitude. It is 180 miles long — is, at its 
greatest width, 52 miles broad — and has an average width of about 
40 miles. It is, moreover, very deep. 

The first place at which the steamer touched was the town or vil- 
lage of Oswego, on the American side of the lake, and in the state 
of New York. Oswego is a gay, sparsedly built, but improving 
town of considerable size, having many American features, badly 
paved streets inclusive. It enjoys a large and increasing trade in 
flour. Even at present, the number of flour-mills at work in Oswego 
is very great. I was credibly informed on the spot, that these mills 
could, and often did, grind 9000 barrels of flour per day. Indeed, 
it appears from statistics of the Oswego mills, prepared for a forth- 
coming Gazette of the State of New York, that 600,000 barrels of 
flour were ground at the mills during the year 1848. In that year 
thirteen mills were in operation ; the number, at the time of my 
visit, had been increased to sixteen. 

From Oswego the steamer proceeded to Sackett's Harbour, also in 
the State of New York; and then crossed the lake to the town of 
Kingston, in Canada West. My stay in Kingston being limited to 
the two hours of the steamer's detention there, I had no opportunity 
of doing more than taking a very general survey of its appearance, 



THE ST. LAWRENCE. 233 

SO that my report may be summed up in this : — That, although I 
had the same fault to advance against the general paving that I have 
stated against some of its republican neighbours, and to complain 
that some of the trottoirs or side-walks were of wood, I thought King- 
ston, on the whole, a pleasantly situated, handsome-looking place, 
having somewhat more of a finished town-like appearance than 
American towns of the same size generally exhibit. The Town Hall, 
in connexion with which is the Post Office, a massive building, and 
the French cathedral, the English church, and some other public 
buildings, have some pretensions to architectural beauty. 

Kingston stands at the commencement of the river St. Lawrence, 
whicli forms the outlet of Lake Ontario. As therefore the Niagara 
forms the feeder, and the St. Lawrence, as it were, the waste-pipe, of 
the same lake, it would have been more natural, and it might have 
been as well, had the two rivers, or rather the two parts of the same 
river, been called by the same name, distinguishing their position by 
the terms upper and lower. But it were too late to try to change 
this now. It were difficult to name any two rivers in the world, 
naturally connected with each other, with which such an experiment 
could not more easily be made. The Falls of the Niagara, and the 
Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, have conferred upon each of 
the streams in which these celebrities are to be seen, a reputation 
which precludes the possibility of a change of name as regards either 
of them. 

Beautiful St. Lawrence ! others have expressed themselves disap- 
pointed with thee; but writing only as I found and felt, and without 
reference to the impressions even of more gifted travellers, I am 
constrained to confess that, in no part of my wanderings by sea or 
by land — the unapproachable Niagara alone excepted — did I feel 
more interest and excitement than I did when sailing, often shooting, 
down the waters of thine arrowy steam. The variety of the islands, 
which, although named The Thousand, are said to be in realityof 
much larger number; the racing speed at which the river runs, with 
the occasional boiling and blustering of the rapids, and the also oc- 
casional transition from narrows to lakes, and from^ lakes to narrows 
again, give an interest and a variety to the sail, which is exceedingly 
pleasing. True, the islands are none of them high, and some of 
them are covered only with stunted brushwood. But then they are 
in constant succession, and most of them are clothed with trees of 
very graceful foliage. True, also, the river has lost the green clear- 
ness it possessed when it passed under the world-renowned name of 
the Niagara, or while its waters formed part of the waters of Lake 
Ontario, and it has now assumed a browned and comparatively tur- 
gid aspect. But then it is still full of activity : it toils, tosses, and 
tumbles like a thing of life. Often it is difficult to understand what 

20*^ 



234: THE ST. LAWRENCE. 

all the toil, trouble, and turmoil is about. Like a numerous class of 
would-be politicians, whose characteristic features are graphically 
touched off by Wordsworth in the line — 

" Hurried and hurrying, volatile and loud," 

the St. Lawrence seems resolved to make the most of everything—- 
to make a vast noise and bluster as well without as- when there is 
occasion, and to keep up the excitement even long after all apparent 
cause for it has ceased. 

Shooting the rapids ! Who has not heard of the Rapids of the 
St. Lawrence, or read in the days of boyhood, when the taste for the 
marvellous is keen, of the danger and excitement of " shooting''' 
them ? But the danger may fairly be considered as one of the things 
passed away. The excitement, however, still remains. And it was 
exciting and interesting enough to feel the gigantic steamer steadying 
herself, as it were, before entering the tossing turbulent waters of 
the Long Sault Rapids ; and then hurrying along and down through 
their boiling billows with the speed of a sea-bird. In shooting these 
rapids on this occasion, the steamer had to pass a sailing vessel bound 
for Montreal or Quebec, which was going down at the same time, 
and for a while it seemed as if a collision was almost inevitable. 
Both vessels required to keep a particular channel, where the rocks 
were covered by the greatest depth of water, which channel was indi- 
cated by the particular appearance of the boiling of the water. But 
the sailing-vessel did not seem to " answer her helm'' readily ; and, 
had not the steamer done so very sharply, a fearful collision must 
have taken place. Indeed, it is only from insufficiency of steering 
that accidents are likely to occur, and the very rapidity of the 
steamer's motion gives her what is, 1 believe, technically called good 
Bteerage-way. At all events, the Indian pilot who steered the steamer 
Lady of the Lake down the rapids of the St. Lawrence, did not seem 
to think there was anything of danger in his occupation ; and if he 
was not one of the best judges of the amount of the danger, he cer- 
tainly ought to have been so. 

The group called the Thousand Islands commences about ten miles 
below Kingston, and extends for a distance of upwards of fifty miles ; 
and the wanderings of the steamer among the various channels seemed 
sometimes strange enough — creating often much of what may be 
termed lake scenery; as it was not till we seemed to be almost run- 
ning on shore, that the channel through which we were to pass 
opened to our view. An hour or so after leaving the islands, the 
Lady of the Lake shot into the mouth of the river Oswegatchie, and 
moored at the harbour of the town of Ogdensburg, which stands at 
the mouth of this dark-coloured stream of unpronounceable name. 
As the American steamer British Empire^ which was to convey me 



OGDENSBURG. 235 

onward to the capital of Canada, had not arrived, and was not ex- 
pected for some hours, I devoted the time so gained to landing, cross- 
ing the long wooden bridge, (on which I observed the notice so usual 
on such structures in the States, prohibiting carriages from passing 
quicker than at a walking pace, under a penalty of some ten or 
twenty dollars,) and traversing the length and breadth of the town 
of Ogdensburg. But, although I think it is by such wayside visits 
to comparatively unvisited places, that one can best form proper no- 
tions of the general progress of a nation, at least as regards their in- 
ternal trade, such rambles do not afford many incidents or particulars 
for description ; and the only note of Ogdensburg I find in my daily 
memoranda, is to the effect that it is of the same rough business cha- 
racter with some of the other minor American trading places I have 
already described 3 that a large trade in grain, and in grinding grain, 
is carried on in it ; and that it bears many indications of increasing 
wealth and importance. At the same time, and although there are 
some neat-looking villas to be seen from the bridge, cresting the lofty 
banks of the stream of the Indian name, Ogdensburg does not as yet 
boast much beauty of an architectural nature. 

When describing my voyage on the Mississippi, I had occasion to 
mention the prevalence of the habit of chewing and its many un- 
pleasantnesses. When in a shop in Ogdensburg, I had an illustra- 
tion of the extent to which it is carried, and the manner in which it 
is acquired, by the juvenile portion of the community. I had made 
a small purchase, more with the view of getting into conversation 
with the intelligent looking proprietor, than from any desire for the 
thing bought; and finding the party I addressed very obliging, and 
(on my at once, and in accordance with my custom, asking him to 
excuse my questions, on the ground of my being an entire stranger,) 
very communicative, I continued my conversation with him as to the 
trade of the town, which he represented as in a flourishing condition. 
While I was talking, two or three well-dressed boys came into the 
shop asking for some sort of gum, adding to it a name I had not be- 
fore heard ; and on my asking the little purchaser what he wanted, 
and offering to get some of it for him, the owner of the shop said, 
" Oh, never mind, sir, he wants what I have not to give him — he 
wants Burgundy pitch to chew.'' 

^^ Burgundy pitch to chew !" said I — " that is assuredly a strange 
taste.'' 

"Yes it is,'' said my friend the storekeeper, "but that is gene- 
rally the way in which the habit of chewing is at first acquired in 
this country. They begin with something which promotes the flow 
of the saliva, and then gradually come on to the weaker kinds of 
tobacco, and then to the more pungent." 

He added that even some of the fairer part of creation^ in the 



236 MONTREAL. 

United States, occasionally tried the first part of the process. But 
this last statement was, I trust, a scandal, as I also hope is Captain 
Marryat's story of the American young ladies carrying packages of 
pig-tail ornamented with ribbons for the use of their swains, and to 
promote their eloquence when they flag for want of a quid — of which 
practice, however, I certainly never saw anything, although I was in 
the most chewing districts of America. Indeed, I agree with an 
American gentleman I lately travelled with in England, that it is to 
the ladies of the United States that we must look for the banishment 
of this filthy habit of chewing ; and I also cordially concur in his re- 
mark, that I cannot conceive of one of the fairy, beauteous girls, of 
whom I saw so many in the United States of America, permitting a 
lover disfigured by chewing to approach, much less — time and place 
convenient — to kiss her. There is here surely a kind of quid pro 
quo, which is anything but flattering to the good taste of the ladies 
of the United States. 

Opposite Ogdensburg, and on the other side of the St. Lawrence, 
stands the Canadian town of Prescott — a steam ferry-boat plying 
between the two. 

Leaving Ogdensburg in the very superior steamer called the 
British Empire, we touched at Prescott, and then resumed our 
voyage down the spirited waters of the dancing St. Lawrence : a 
mill near Prescott being pointed out to us, in passing, as the scene 
of a rencontre between some of the then rebels to the British gov- 
ernment, and the then Canadian loyalists, in 1837 or 1838, when 
the former were defeated, and their leader slain on the spot — or 
taken and executed, I forget which — and a few hours thereafter we 
approached and passed down the great Sault Rapid, of which I 
have already written. At six o'clock P. M. of the same day, the 
steamer reached Lachline, nine miles from Montreal, where, like 
most of my fellow-travellers, I took the railway for the metropolis 
of Canada — not deeming the advantage of shooting the rapid of 
Lachline sufiicient inducement to lead me to spend a night on board 
the steamer, or in the village on shore. 

Arriving at Montreal, I took up my temporary abode at the very 
excellent hotel of Donnegana, now unfortunately among the things 
that have been, having been burnt down during one of the late 
unseemly riots (for it were folly to call them more) of which Mon- 
treal has been the theatre. 

The destruction of the houses of parliament at Montreal, by fire, 
had occurred only a short time before my arrival ; and the popular 
riots at New York, said to have originated in the disputes between 
Mr. Macready and Mr. Forrest, were also of recent happening, 
and the two divided the general conversation by rail, by steam-boat, 
and by stage. I shall have a little to say on both subjects; but I 



MONTREAL. 237 

sliall reserve wliat I have to say on tlie first till my return to Mon- 
treal from Quebec^ and of the latter till I shall have reached New 
York. 

Montreal disappointed, while it pleased and surprised me. Tt 
disappointed me as a whole, but some parts of it gratified while 
they surprised me. I expected to find a finer town, taking it alto- 
gether ; but I was unprepared for the breadth of some of the streets, 
and the symmetry of many of the lines of buildings occupied by 
shops and counting-houses in the new town. 

The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Montreal is generally pointed 
out to the visitor as, in an architectural point of view, the most 
important building in the city ; and I observe that a late writer 
has said that, " with the exception of that in Mexico, it is the 
finest ecclesiastical edifice on the (American) continent." But, 
without professing to see beauties where I did not see them, I can- 
not acquiesce in this praise. The'Catholic Cathedral of Montreal 
is a large building — so large as to be capable of containing about 
seven thousand worshippers ; it is also a handsome structure, and 
has a noble and imposing front ; but the towers or turrets which 
surmount it destroy much of the effect it would otherwise produce. 
They are much too thin and narrow for the size of the building. 
Indeed, there is in the immediate vicinity of the cathedral, a build- 
ing of far more modest pretensions, which I would venture to pre- 
fer to it, in so far as symmetry, proportion, and keeping are 
concerned. I mean the building occupied as the Montreal Bank, 
which I admired very greatly, and which, recording my own im- 
pressions, and uninfluenced by those of any one else, I characterize 
as the chastest of all the architectural beauties of the capital of 
the Canadas. The building at present used as a market-place, but 
which there was some talk of having converted into Houses of 
Assembly for the Legislature, in room of those destroyed by fire, 
(which do not seem to have been either handsome or favourably 
situated,) is also a handsome massive stone building, and beauti- 
fully situated, facing the river. 

The best general view of Montreal is to be obtained from the 
hill above the town, and by taking a drive round it. It is termed 
^ar excellence the Mountain, and it affords, I was told, a very ex- 
tensive and delightful view. But I can only speak of it, and 
recommend it, on the report of others, as the weather and other 
causes of interruption disappointed my oft-formed expectations of 
being able to visit it. 

Leaving Montreal at night, a sail of about twelve hours brings 
you to Quebec, although the distance is nearly two hundred miles. 
Quebec has been called the Gibraltar of the new world. Never 
having seen the latter, I cannot say anything, pro or couj as to the 



238 QUEBEC. 

sufficiency of tlie resemblance ; but most undoubtedly Quebec cita- 
del is a very strong place, and, defended by a British force, I should 
think it impregnable. It reminded me somewhat of the castle of 
Stirling in Scotland, near which some of the years of my boyhood 
were spent : for although Quebec is stronger, and is washed on one 
side by the broad deep waters of the St, Lawrence, and thus differs 
from Sterling, there is a general resemblance in the rocks on which 
the two citadels are built, and also in the neighbouring heights by 
which they are severally surrounded. 

The lions of Quebec and its neighbourhood are, the citadel, to 
which access is to be had by ticket on application — the Heights of 
Abraham, and the spot where the gallant Wolfe fell — the plains of 
Abraham — the monument to Wolfe and Montcalm, (a monument 
in its design, if not in its execution, one of the most pleasing ever 
reared to departed worth ; for what can be more noble, or more 
proper, than that the differences and contests of this world should 
not overleap the grave ?) and, in the neighbourhood, the Falls of the 
Montmorenci — the Indian lorette or village, and three lakes (Cal- 
vaire, St. Charles, and Beauport) at some distance. Of these the 
reader will here only be troubled with some account of the Falls of 
the Montmorenci, and the natural steps on that river. 

With Niagara fresh in my recollection, and treasuring the memory 
of it as a never-dying reminiscence, I confess that it was with some 
surprise even to myself that I so much enjoyed the Falls of the 
Montmorenci. I will not attempt to analyse, much less to justify the 
feeling, farther than by saying that I always doubt the capability 
truly to enjoy fine scenery of that man who, even when in the midst 
of a scene which possesses any of the elements of beauty or of grand- 
eur, can find heart to compare it, in a critical way, with any other 
scene of which he may have been an observer. Nature is free, and 
rich as free. She derides the critic's narrow view. She revels in 
variety — ever varied, ever new. Thus it is that every scene of 
nature's forming has beauties peculiar to itself — beauties which other 
scenes may rival and exceed, but which they cannot exactly parallel ; 
and I confess it always raises my bile to have my feelings, on being 
privileged to witness a really grand and picturesque view, outraged 
by overhearing some such remarks as this — " It is very beautiful, 

but nothing to the Falls of .'■' On one occasion, and when 

viewing the Falls of Niagara, there was obtruded on me, and by a 
fellow-countryman too, the remark — " What do you think of the 
Falls of Clyde now ? " I had a personal friendship for the man, but 
I could have knocked him down at the time, for the total absence 
of scenic perception which his observation displayed ; while I simply 



THE MONTMORENCI. 289 

responded, "As irmcli or more than I ever did/^ — at the same time 
increasing the distance between ns, so that I might not be further 
interrupted by any of his intrusions. 

The Fall of the Montmorenci is into a bay, at which it joins the 
river St. Lawrence, and over an almost perpendicular rock of above 
two hundred and fifty feet high. In falling over such a precipice, it 
is needless to say that the waters of the river are driven into flakes 
of foam ; or that these flakes, again rising, partially in the shape of 
spray, form clouds which, assuming the prismatic colours, give great 
beauty to the scene. The river, at the point whence it is precipitated 
into the abyss below, is fully a hundred feet broad ; and the basin 
into which the agitated, convulsed waters are received, is bounded 
by steep cliffs of upwards of three hundred feet in perpendicular 
height. It is a scene of rich and rare magnificence, and, like all 
such, mere description is tame to give an adequate idea of the emo- 
tions it excites. 

Leaving the falls, a walk of some two miles through the fields, 
and in a direction upwards, along the course of the river Montmo- 
renci, brings you to what is called " the Natural Steps,^^ or, as they 
might be more appropriately termed, the Rapids of the Montmorenci. 
Here, for about three hundred yards, the pent-up river rolls in foam ; 
and, dashing itself against opposing barriers of sandstone rock, 
through the main body of which it has, in course of ages, worked 
its way, (so as to create that appearance of steps which has given a 
name to the scene,) spouts up, when the opposing obstacle has proved 
insurmountable, at least for the time, in flakes of foam, only to fail 
back again, and to take another direction for its exit. The term 
picturesque is, beyond question, the epithet that may be most cor- 
rectly applied to such a scene. The banks of the river are through- 
out thickly clothed with trees ', and their effect, combined with the 
foaming current and the scattered masses of sandstone rock, com- 
pose a scene to which the words wild and picturesque with much 
propriety apply. 

Returning from the Falls of the Montmorenci, after paying a visit 
to the Indian village, I was much struck with the view thus lo be 
had of Quebec, with the tin roofs of many of the houses sparkling in 
the beams of a summer sun ; and the pleasure of the return was 
enhanced by the accidental meeting with a reverend friend from Scot- 
land, whom I had last seen in my native country, at a distance of 
some three thousand miles. 

Having bade a long farewell to Quebec and its many beauties and 
celebrities, I returned, by the same route by which I had come, to 
the city of Montreal, and spent other two days in an endeavour to 
appreciate its scenic peculiarities, as well as in an attempt to ascer- 
tain the feelings which animated the mass of its sixty thousand 



240 CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 

inhabitants in regard to recent events. This, therefore, seems the 
proper place for introducing the few notes I made of my observations 
on the latter subject, which is at present an important one in relation 
to this extensive and valuable colonial possession of Great Britain. 

CANADA, AND CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 

That the Canadians, from being the most loyal among the loyal, 
should become so disturbed and disloyal, apparently all of a sudden ; 
and that the dissatisfaction should chiefly, if not solely, prevail 
amongst that party who, in 1837 and 1838, displayed so energeti- 
cally their attachment to Great Britain, in vigorously putting down 
the insurrection then attemped, are two facts which, at first sight at 
least, struck me as seemingly anomalous. Nevertheless, they are 
facts which are capable of being easily explained : the union of the 
two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada furnishes the explanation 
of the whole. That union was carried through, in accordance, with 
the report published under the signature of Lord Durham. Into the 
vexed question of whether it was entitled, in very truth, to be 
regarded as a fair exposition of the views of the talented nobleman 
whose name it bore, or whether the proposition for a union of the 
provinces was one that would have received his continued support, 
had he lived, in unimpaired mental vigour, to see the experiment 
tried, it were idle now to inquire. The union was carried, and it 
has worked very ill. As to that, all parties are agreed. But why 
so ? Simply because that, whatever were the relative proportions of 
the two parties, as actively engaged in the disturbances of 1837 and 
1838, the party with which the then disloyal were connected, and 
by whom they were politically supported, was numerically stronger 
than the party of the loyal. Hence the former acquired in the 
united legislature a political majority, which enabled them to do 
whatever the possession of such a majority entitled them to do. Nor 
were they slow to take advantage of the power, the constitutional 
power, of which they thus found themselves in the possession. Not 
to occupy time, by detailing matters familiar to most readers, the 
result of the union of the two Canadas into one province, was to 
place the disaffected party of 1837 and 1838 in power, and to oust 
therefrom the party by which the British rule and government had 
then been supported. While Messrs. Papineau, Lafontaine, and 
their friends, (who in 1837 had incited the people to appear with 
artillery and muskets at meetings called for the real, if not the 
avowed, object of overturning the British rule,) stepped or were 
hoisted into power, — Sir Allan M'Nab and the rest of the royalists, 
who had so courageously suppressed the would-be rebellion at much 
risk, inconvenience, and pecuniary sacrifice, found themselves dis- 



CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 241 

placed and in a minority. Such a state of matters was in itself 
calculated to excite feelings of the strongest discontent in the minds 
of the British party in Canada^ and they were not allowed to calm 
down even into a sort of acquiescence. They were kept fully alive 
by the successful attempt of M. Papineau to claim his salary as speaker 
of the Lower House, for the period during which he was absent from 
the colony, if not for the purpose, at least to the effect, of avoiding 
being brought to trial for his participation in the disturbances of 
1837 and 1838; and by other measures of a similar character, (in- 
cluding all the public appointments,) until the matter was brought 
to a climax by the passing of the bill for the indemnification of parties 
who had suffered loss through, or in the course of, the disturbances 
which had been so successfully suppressed. So far as the letter of 
that act goes, it certainly might be so read as not necessarily to lead 
to the consequences anticipated by the British party in their opposi- 
tion to it. But they well knew what was meant, and what it would 
unavoidably lead to; and, despite the express declaration of the 
speaker of the legislative council, and of other officials of the colonial 
ministry, the view universally taken of the Indemnity Bill was and 
is, that its purpose is to pay the rebels who were in arms against the 
British government in 1837 and 1838 for their alleged losses in the 
course of the insurrection. It is this, or rather the Governor's giving 
the royal assent to that bill, that has brought to a climax the feelings 
of the party who supported and maintained the British connexion in 
1837 and 1838. They think themselves trampled upon, and that 
their feelings have been outraged; and prejudice itself must admit 
that they have some grounds for so thinking. 

No doubt the British Government, having ventured on a scheme 
of conciliation, might be expected to give it a fair trial. No doubt 
also, a union of the provinces having been carried, it was to be ex- 
pected that, as a general rule, the home government would be pre- 
pared to sanction whatever measures might be approved of by the 
majority of the colonial legislature of the united provinces. But this 
was an extreme application of these principles. To make no provi- 
sion for the reward of those by whom, and through whose loyal ef- 
forts, the insurrection of 1837 and 1838 had been so easily repressed, 
and yet to sanction a bill for the indemnification of those whose suf- 
ferings, if they did suffer, were caused by their rising in arms against 
the British rule — it is to be questioned whether a more extraordi- 
nary piece of legislation is to be found in the whole history of the 
past. Our friends and kindred in the American republic boast of 
the liberality of their government, and government measures ; they 
would find it difficult to parallel this conduct of Great Britain, in 
thus " heaping coals of fire" on the heads of its most determined 
enemies. The object, no doubt, was to turn these parties into friends, 

21 



242 CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 

and, to appearance at least, it succeeded. The rebels of 1837 and 
1838 are the loyalists of 1849 and 1850. But is this attachment 
to British rule more than seeming ? Bought loyalty is generally but 
lip loyalty ; and were it not that the party in Canada who at present 
have a majority in its legislative assemblies, possess the strongest of 
all interests to maintain the connection with England, and resist an- 
nexation to the United States, I confess I would fear much for the 
permanency of its devotion. But the party referred to have the very 
strongest of all possible interests to prefer the English to the repub- 
lican connection ; for, if a visitor to the states of the Union and to 
Canada sees one thing more clearly in the whole matter than another, 
it is this, that the preponderance, if not the very existence of the 
present dominant party, depends on the exclusion from Canada of the 
Anglo-Saxon race and Anglo-Saxon principles that prevail in the 
neighbouring republic. Assuredly, if it should ever happen that 
Canada is annexed to the United States, the hour that dates the con- 
nection dates also the downfall of the party that presently have the 
rule in the Canadian provinces. Whatever Messrs. Lafontaine and 
others may be, or may think themselves to be, when under the pro- 
tection of the heavy power and outstretched wings of England, they 
will find their glory departed if ever England permits them to fall 
into the iron grip of Brother Jonathan. It was the fashion in 1849, 
and it is probably the fashion still, to speak there, as here, of there 
being a war of races -at present going on in Canada. This mode of 
speaking is scarcely correct. The dominance of British power, and 
its principles of Tros Tyriusve — of giving equal protection to all — 
prevents any such conflict; nay, had the two Canadas only been 
kept asunder — had they not been brought into political, in addition 
to topical juxtaposition, it is the opinion of many persons intimately 
acquainted with their history, that the two races which inhabit them 
would have gradually blended into each other, so as to leave little 
trace of their separate existence. But should British connection be 
exchanged for the rule and domination of the American republic, 
there will then be no doubt of the propriety of the phrase " conflict 
of races,'' as applicable to the state of things that will then exhibit 
themselves ; while there will be as little doubt as to the manner in 
which such conflict will eventuate. If, as a professional gentleman 
in Montreal, who was taking a very active part in the annexation 
movement, expressed himself when I was discussing the matter with 
him — if, unfortunately, the affair should ever come to the arbitra- 
ment of the musket, the French party in Canada will raise it in de- 
fence of the British connection ; but it will be the interest of self- 
preservation, and not a real love of England, that will influence them 
in so doing. 

No doubt strong efforts are now making by the repeal party, in 



CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 243 

their vain attempt to promote what is called " peaceful annexation/' 
to win over French Canadians to the cause. But their success, hith- 
erto, has been but slight. At an annexation meeting, organized and 
" got up" at Stanstead Plain, close to the United States' line, and in 
a neighbourhood where there are many parties born in, or connected 
with the republic of North America, only some twenty or thirty 
responded to the call. The parties who arranged the affair afterwards 
resorted to the common expedient of concocting a paper of grievances, 
with a suggestion of " peaceful annexation" as the cure. This paper 
was hawked about for signature, and it is said that, by " hook or 
crook," some six hundred were induced to subscribe their names to 
it. So say the Canadian papers on both sides ; and it will give the 
reader some notion of how far he can safely trust to the accuracy of 
the statements of some portions of the republican press on this, to 
them, tempting subject of Canadian disturbances, to be informed 
that, several of the New York papers, in commenting on this docu- 
ment, asserted that the signatures appended to it amounted to twelve 
thousand ! ! 

The fact to which I have thus referred is, indeed, the main distinc- 
tion between the discontents of 1837 and those of 1849. The former 
took up arms against the British government in 1837, because they 
disliked England and English connection, influence, and rule ; they 
defend it in 1849, because it is their interest and their safety so to 
do. The latter complain bitterly, and they made their complaints 
visible by disturbance and riot in 1849, because they found their 
loyalty unrequited, their attachment spurned, and the disloyal whom 
they had overcome, preferred to influence, power, and emolument. 

True it is, that the force brought out in 1849 to quell the riot 
at which the houses of parliament in Montreal were burned down, 
saw among the individuals they were required to disperse or to ap- 
prehend, men who fought by their side in 1837, and this without 
a change of service on the one side, or of sentiment on the other. 
Surely the existence of such things prove that there is something 
wrong in the mode of governing Canada. Surely such things 
ought not to be. 

Inquiries when in Canada, and attention paid to Canadian af- 
fairs since my return to this country, lead me to the conclusion, 
that the state of the public mind in Canada, although very un- 
settled, is yet so undetermined as to any particular line of conduct, 
that everything now depends upon the course that may be pursued 
by the legislature of England. 

My visit to Montreal was made immediately after the burning 
of the building in which the two houses of parliament held their 
sittings, and which, unfortunately, included the valuable libraries 
and archives of the province. As a matter of course^ both parties 



244 CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 

deplored the Yandal-like act, while they ascribed it to different 
causes : one party alleging accident, the other incendiarism. But 
all agreed in this, that the riot had been greatly exaggerated, both 
in American and in European newspapers. Judging from details 
heard on the spot, the opera-house riot of New York in 1849 was 
infinitely more serious than the so-called Montreal insurrection of 
the same year. Indeed, the latter seems, in its origin and nature, 
to have been more like the disgraceful, but fortunately short-lived, 
riots in Grlasgow and Edinburgh in 1848. The consequences, 
however, of the Montreal disturbance were more serious. The 
library of the legislative assemblies, containing a numerous and 
valuable collection of books and the archives of the province, was 
totally destroyed ; and by this heathenish act an irreparable loss 
was sustained, not by Canada or G-reat Britain alone, but by the 
whole civilized world. Of all destructive actions the wanton de- 
struction of literary proyerty is the most indefensible. I think I 
never felt ashamed of my countrymen but once, and that was 
when, at the Capitol of Washington, an American friend drew my 
attention to the tokens which yet remain of the burning of the 
library there, by some British troops under Greneral Boss in 1814. 
There is no proper excuse for such acts, even in warfare. The 
only apology is the expression of a hope that it was more the 
result of accident than of design ; and that the person in command 
cannot be fairly made responsible for the individual acts of his sol- 
diers, when out of the sight of himself and his subordinate ofii- 
cers, and excited by opposition, or by the license engendered by 
success. 

But to return to Canada. It seemed strange that, neither on one 
side of the boundary line nor on the other, did one hear half so 
much about American annexation as we do daily in Great Britain. 
Neither in the States nor in Canada was it much spoken of in May 
and June 1849. In the States, so little was said about it, that it 
appeared either as if the recent questionable annexation of Texas, 
and acquisition of California, from the weaker sister republic of 
Mexico, had satisfied the American thirst for territorial aggrandise- 
ment; or that American statesmen had learned the lesson that a 
smaller territory, well cemented and more united, were better than a 
vaster union of more heterogeneous materials. It was, therefore, 
with some surprise that I shortly afterwards perused the Vermont 
manifesto in favour of peaceable annexation. The resolutions of the 
Vermont legislature, on this subject of the annexation of Canada to 
the United States, are interesting, solely because they aid at least in 
arriving at a right estimate of the feelings prevailing on the subject 
in that part of the republic which marches with and borders on the 
British possessions. These resolutions proceed on the narrative, that 



CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 245 

the original articles of the American Confederation contemplated the 
admission of Canada into the Uniun; that the state of feeling in 
Canada indicates a desire for such union, and " therefore'^ the State 
of Vermont resolve that it is desirable to effect such union, " with- 
out a violation, on the part of the United States, of the amicable 
relations existing vrith the British Government, or the law of na- 
tions/' The second ^' resolution" is in accordance with this general 
principle, being in these terms, — " Resolved, That the peaceful annex- 
ation of Canada to the United States, with the consent of the 
British Government and of the people of Canada, and upon just and 
honourable terras, is an object in the highest degree desirable to the 
people of the United States/' These words are all fair enough ; 
what they really mean — whether the profession of a desire for peace- 
ful annexation be not a mere tribute at present paid to British 
power, and whether there be any probability of annexation taking 
place with "the consent of the British Government and of the 
people of Canada, and upon just and honourable terms" — time will 
show. For the present, the speech of the British minister must 
have somewhat staggered the believers in the possibility of such an 
event. However, the State of Vermont — and also the State of New 
York, which has since followed the example Vermont set her — have 
an interest in the matter peculiar to themselves — an interest sepa- 
rate and independent from that of the other states of the American 
Union, (save perhaps Maine and New Hampshire,) and one in which 
tliese other states, or at all events the Southern States, are not at all 
likely to sympathise. Their immediate juxta-position to Canada 
East, and their division therefrom by a little more than imaginary 
boundary, creates the interest, and renders it very natural that they 
at least should desire that their fertile neighbour should become a 
member of the same confederation with themselves. But the advan- 
tage to the states removed from the Canadian border it is more diffi- 
cult to see. Indeed, it would be easy to show that, while the inte- 
rest of the Southern States — Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Ala- 
bam.a, Mississippi, Louisiana, &c. — is decidedly adverse, none of the 
states, save those which touch on the Canadian border, have any 
interest at all in the matter which is favourable to annexation. But 
my business here is more properly with Canadian than with United 
States' affairs. Contenting myself, therefore, with the remark that, 
whatever other effects Canadian annexation might possibly have on 
American destinies, it would give the non-slaveholding interest such 
an overwhelming majority in the United States Congress as would 
greatly hasten, if it did not precipitate, the overthrow of the system 
of slavery throughout the whole of the continent of North America ; 
I proceed to say, that while, from this absence of much general ac- 
knowledgment of the likelihood of annexation with the StateS; one is 

21* 



246 CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 

apt to consider the chance of such an event as one beyond the limits 
of reasonable calculation : still, on more minute inquiry, you are led 
to consider it not so very impossible, only the British (rovernment 
persist in their present system of colonial mismanagement. It was 
an observation made to myself by a professional gentleman in Mon- 
treal, who had been my school-fellow in Scotland, and who has, 
since the conversation referred to, taken an active part in the move- 
ment, that he never contemplated any measure with more reluctance 
than he did a separation between England and Canada, and that he 
would only advocate it from a conviction that the Canadians, and 
their wants and wishes, never would be properly understood or legis- 
lated on in the mother country, or at least at the Colonial Office. 
Such views are general amongst men of influence, education, and 
talent in Canada; and the men who entertain them are men not to 
be put down by the sic volo sicjubeo of a Colonial Secretary. These 
parties unite in acknowledging that the Canadas have been very 
grossly mismanaged, and that some radical change is necessary. 
They no doubt differ in regard to what the change is to be. A sepa- 
ration of Upper and Lower Canada, accompanied by a new territo- 
rial division between the two — a Federal Union of the British North 
American provinces, under the nominal dominant authority and pro- 
tection of G-reat Britain, with one of the royal family of England as 
the executive head — a union of the same provinces into a separate 
and independent republic, but in amity and connexion, and under 
the protection of Grreat Britain — or a peaceful separation of the 
Canadas from England, and their annexation with, and incorporation 
into, the family of the great federal union of the United States of 
America. All these schemes and measures have their several sup- 
porters, the only bond of union among them being the universal 
admission that some change is imperiously required. It is not in- 
tended to discuss the relative value of these several panaceas, pro- 
pounded for Canadian disaffection and distress ; but it may be re- 
marked on them generally, that either of the first two would suffice 
to put an end to the present clamour ; that the second seems infi- 
nitely preferable to the third ; and that, without British consent, it 
seems to be conceded on all hands, that the last is not to be thought 
of, and that it neither could nor would be accomplished. 

The Montreal Herald seems to be the mouthpiece of the annexa- 
tion party; and if the reader in Great Britain judges from it, he 
will form a very exaggerated notion of the feeling of the party it 
professes to represent. But, indeed, this paper labours under a 
charge of inconsistency, which greatly militates against, and detracts 
from, the effect of the statements and arguments which it now puts 
forth. So late as March 1849, we had it full of loyalty, patriotism, 
and devotion to English connexion. Comparing the then state of 



CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 247 

Canada to the condition of the Italian Exarchates of the tenth cen- 
tury, and quoting the eloquent passage in Gibbon, where he says of 
these that ^^ they shared in all the eclat which belonged to the most 
mighty monarchy in the world, and enjoyed all the military and na- 
val protection which that condition could afford," &c. — these obser- 
vations of the Roman historian, on the Italian Exarchates of the 
tenth century, the Montreal Herald, in March 1849, applied to the 
Canadas in their connexion with England. But, alas for newspaper 
inconsistency ! In the close of the same year we have the same pa- 
per, under the same management, declaring that nothing can remove 
the evils under which, in their phraseology, Canada now groans, save 
a separation from Great Britain, and her incorporation into the great 
family of the North American Republic. But, many as are the in- 
telligent men in Canada who are to be found on the side of a radical 
change, I have misread the general mind in that country, if this par- 
ticular change would be considered as the best one, or as anything 
save a choice of evils. Most Canadians are disposed to count the 
xjost of American annexation. While they admit that it might pro- 
hahly raise the value of fixed property in Canada, and joossihly create 
somewhat greater activity, from an influx of Anglo-Saxon spirit and 
enterprise, they at the same time see clearly that it would destroy 
the importance of the leading towns in Canada, deprive it of the 
whole expenditure of the British military, naval, commissariat, and 
ordnance departments — introduce the American tariff on imported 
goods, which is, in very many particulars, much higher than the ex- 
isting one — remove much capital from Canada to the more central 
districts of the States — and involve Canada in whatever odium at- 
taches to the participation of the American Federal Republic in the 
sin or misfortune of slavery. 

My impression therefore is, that annexation principles in Canada 
have not progressed so far as some parties in this country, or in the 
States, would represent them to have done. The question has been 
mooted; many persons are interested in pressing it on the Canadian 
public — and the most unscrupulous mis-statements have been and 
will be put forth to urge its forward movement ; yet still it is any- 
thing but palatable to the great body of the Canadian people : than 
whom there are none constitutionally more loyal, within the limits 
of the wide dominions of Queen Victoria. But, at the same time, 
there is danger in delay. Such principles exist ; and if Great Britain 
would keep these North American colonies, justice as well as sound 
policy requires the instant adoption of some legislative measures 
which loill satisfy the British party in Canada, and appease the 
prevailing discontent, even though that should involve the going back 
in some measure upon our free-trade policy. The indications by the ^ 
Government of America; of their intention to draw tighter their 



248 CANADIAN AFFAIRS. 

tariff protection to the native industry of the United States, furnish 
Great Britain both with a reason and a justification for reconsidering 
the position that/ree trade must, of necessity, he fair trade. It were 
desirable that our leading Free-traders were more plain and explicit 
than they have yet been on the great question of the British colonial 
empire. It is difficult to know from Cobden, et hoc genus omne, on 
what grounds they defend the present system of legislating for the 
colonies : whether it be because the colonies are not worth keeping, 
at least at the price we have been paying for them, or can keep them 
at ; or whether they think the course they advocate is the best means 
for promoting colonial regeneration and improvement. If the latter 
be their view, I would oppose facts — stubborn facts — to their theories. 
If the former, the answer is an entire difference of opinion. Many 
wise and some great men have thought, as I do, that, without her 
colonies, Great Britain, instead of being the greatest of powers, would 
sink into the position of a third or fourth rate one ; and that not only 
are our noble colonies worth paying a heavy price to redeem, but 
that, properly legislated for, and relieved from charges and expenses 
they have no right to bear, they have been, and they are destined to 
be, great sources of wealth to the parent state. In their proper 
time and place, these are positions I am prepared to discuss to the 
best of my humble ability. Meanwhile I draw to a close my re- 
marks on the subject of the importance of the Canadas to the mother 
country, by observing that there is the soundest political philosophy 
in the sentiment of Sam Slick, when — likening the part that the 
Canadian trade bears in the general trade of Great Britain to the 
contribution the Ohio makes to the mighty waters of the Mississippi 
— he says that, although to all appearance it does not make it broader 
or higher, it makes it an ^^everlasting sight deeper'^ Just so with 
the colony trade: though you can't see it in the ocean of English 
trade, yet it is still there — there, to the effect of giving much greater 
depth to the general business of the mother country. 



LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 249 



CHAPTER XII. 

"To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, 
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene ; 

This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold 

Converse with nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled." 

Byron. 

Crossing the St. Lawrence from Montreal to La Prairie, (a dis- 
tance of eight miles,) in a steamer called the Iron Duke, I pro- 
ceeded onwards through an uninteresting country to the village of 
St. John's where I took the steamer Burlington, (so called after 
the town of the same name, the capital of the state of Vermont,) 
en route for Whitehall, situated at the upper end of Lake Cham- 
plain. I have since observed that it was in a steamer of the same 
name that Mr. Dickens travelled over the same route, and he de- 
scribes the vessel as a " perfectly exquisite achievement of neat- 
ness, elegance, and order.'^ The distance of time scarcely admits 
of the belief that the two vessels were the* same, or to be identified on 
any known principle of marine architecture, save on the supposi- 
tion that, like the Highlandman's gun, there had been a gradual 
but total renewal of the whole " stock, lock, and barrel,' ' the name 
and general identity remaining nevertheless. But if not the same, 
they were certainly similar, for a more elegant or a more orderly 
steamship than the Burlington, in which I passed through Lake 
Champlain, could scarcely be imagined. 

The chief characteristic of Lake Champlain is its great length, 
as compared with its limited breadth. It is 108 miles long, while 
its greatest breadth is only 12, and its average width only 8 miles ; 
and being dotted over with numerous picturesque islands, reposing 
as it were on its bosom, the sail from the one end to the other is 
very varying : so that, although no part of the scenery is entitled 
to be denominated grand, or to be compared, as it has by some 
been, to the much more majestic scenery of the lakes of Scotland, 
a sail on Lake Champlain is exceedingly agreeable and interesting 
— and that independent even of the historic associations connected 
with the many conflicts of which its waters, islets, and banks, 
were the arenas, during the war between England and her revolted 
colonies or their French allies. That war is but a relic of barba- 
rism, and that it is ever to be deplored and avoided by all honour- 
able means, is no doubt true, and all reflecting minds will subscribe 
to this opinion in the abstract But there are cases where force 
or resistance becomes a duty ; and, whether the victims may have 



250 LAKE GEORGE. 

died in defence of the right, or in vindication of the wrong, there 
ever will be felt a generous sympathy for those who have fallen in 
the battle-field, or when contending navies have struggled for the 
mastery : and dastardly must be the soul that could refuse a pass- 
ing sigh to the memory of departed heroism, even though it had 
exhibited itself in the person, and in the actings, of one whom he 
may have considered the natural foe of his country or his race. 
Thus it is that the scenes of Lake Champlain afford a kind of 
classic ground for the novelist or the poet, and that they can 
scarcely be traversed by any one without emotions of interest or 
delight. 

Only a small portion of Lake Champlain is in Canada, and the 
part that is so is at the lower end of the lake. In sailing along it 
you very soon pass the line of demarcation, which separates the 
territory of the United States from that of Grreat Britain. The 
general features, and, indeed, the particular scenes of the lake, 
have been so often described by previous travellers, that I shall 
content myself by compressing my notes upon it into the sentence ; 
that the shores and scenery of Lake Champlain, are, at its lower 
extremity, flat and uninteresting ; while it gradually improves, and 
towards the upper end there are some scenes of great and romantic 
beauty — some which reminded me, in many respects, of the 
scenery among the islands at the lower end or broadest part of 
Loch Lomond in Scotland. 

If the traveller wishes to visit Lake Greorge, he must not proceed 
onwards in the steamer to Whitehall, but leave her at Ticonderago. 
I did not do so, being deterred from the execution of my intention 
by the information that the steamer had not yet commenced sail^ 
ing on this smallest but most romantic of the American lakes, and 
that I would find a difficulty in getting the means of conveyance. 
However, on comparing notes at Boston with some friends, (who 
had been my fellow-travellers during a part of my journeyings, 
and whom the terrors of the cholera on the Mississippi, or their 
'preference of the Charleston route, had caused to make choice of a 
different course of travel;) I regretted much that I had not carried 
out my original intention of visiting Lake G-eorge. These two 
gentlemen — both of whom displayed capacities to enjoy, and powers 
to appreciate, the beauties of nature — assured me that all they had 
previously heard of the picturesque beauty and grandeur of the 
scenery of this little lake (which is not more than twenty miles 
long, by about one mile broad) had not exceeded the truth. They 
described it as exhibiting much of the wild sublimity of the scenery 
of my native Scotland, combined with much beauty peculiar to 
itself. On the report therefore of Mr. Davis, Mr. Child, and 
otherS; I recommend my successors to stop at Ticonderago and 



SARATOGA SPRINGS. 251 

visit Lake George, instead of proceeding, as I did, straight up the 
canal-like upper extremity of Lake Champlain, round the Devil's 
Elbow, to the bustling, trading, irregularly built and wretchedly 
paved, town of Whitehall, whence I proceeded through a pleasing 
country, but by a very indifferently laid, jolting railway, to the 
famed springs and village of Saratoga, somewhere called the Chel- 
tenham of America : but, if so, similis sed longo intervallo. Al- 
though the speed at which we travelled was not great, not being 
quite up to twenty miles an hour at any time, the jolting I have 
referred to was excessive ; and as the effect was to make the in- 
mates of the long carriage (which contained some sixty people) 
bob up and down on the ,new spring-cushions, the result was very 
ludicrous, and would have been simply amusing, had it not been 
for the sense of danger that attaches to every kind of unexpected 
noise or unwonted motion, when travelling on a railway. 

Although my visit to the now far-famed springs of Saratoga, was paid 
at a period of the year a little too early for seeing the village in full 
dress, and the motley scene it annually exhibits during what is called 
the " gay season,^' yet I gladly made it a resting place, having been 
travelling almost continuously since I had left behind me the glorious 
Falls of Niagara. But in reference to this place, and indeed to all 
places of pretty general resort to which the traveller may repair in the 
United States of America, (the same observation may be made of 
other countries,) he will study his comfort if, previous to his arrival 
at any place, he fixes definitely on the hotel in which he intends to 
take up his temporary abode, and adheres to his resolution on arrival, 
despite the allurements of accidental fellow-travellers and others to 
induce him to go elsewhere. Vacillation in this respect is sure to 
engender a host of importunities, and ten chances to one that, dur- 
ing the confusion, the different portions of your luggage are made 
to part company, and to go to different localities. But a little pre- 
vious arrangement will prevent all this ; and it is only justice to 
say that, if confusion does occur, it is in general the traveller's own 
fault. In particular, I have often admired the arrangement gene- 
rally acted on in the United States, for the forwarding of luggage 
when accompanying a passenger on a long journey, to be performed 
partly by rail and partly by sea. On getting your ticket at the 
railway station, or in the steamboat, by or in which the journey is 
commenced, you may get tickets put upon each separate package or 
portion of which your luggage consists. These tickets bear each a 
separate number and duplicate tickets bearing the same number 
being given to the passenger, he has nothing more to do at the end 
of the journey — however many may have been the transitions, as 
regards the modes of conveyance, through which he may have passed 
— than to give his duplicates to a porter, telling him to attend to 



252 SARATOGA SPRINGS. 

the receiving of tlie "personals" at the general delivery, and to 
bring them to the hotel at which he may have resolved on sojourn- 
ing. Such at least was the course I pursued, by passing over every- 
thing into the public charge, on the security of the duplicate; and, 
albeit that there are but too well authenticated stories of numerous 
thefts committed on rivers and railways in the United States, and 
despite an abortive attempt to rob me, by picking the lock of my 
door and knocking off the lock from one of my portmanteaus, in a 
hotel in New York, I did not lose anything of consequence during 
the whole of my erratic sojourn in the great republic. 

The waters of Congress Spring, Saratoga, are not only drunk in 
large quantities at the spring and in the village, but they are bottled 
in equally large quantities, and sent to all parts of the American 
Union, and sometimes even to Europe. Eut there is a vast differ- 
ence between the water as drunk from the spring, and the same spe- 
cies of water as drunk from the bottle. In both there should be 
some effervescence, but at the spring it sparkles and effervesces like 
soda-water, and with a clearness which is quite delightful to behold. 
To my taste it is singularly pleasant ; and, judging from the large 
quantities of it swallowed in the morning, and even at other periods 
of the day, by fairy forms of comparatively small dimensions, the 
taste for it seems to be quite a general one. Judging from the man- 
ner in which it is extolled and used by the general travelling public 
of America, one would suppose that Saratoga water — or Congress 
water, as it is more generally called — was a panacea for all the ills 
that human flesh is heir to ; and there seems to be no doubt but 
that, like some of our British springs, it is highly useful in many, 
if not in most complaints arising from derangement of the stomach 
and bowels, and also in complaints of a rheumatic character : but 
it is undoubtedly injurious in phthisis, and indeed in all pulmonary 
affections arising from primary disease of the lungs. It was, how- 
ever, the acceptability of its taste that would have made Congress 
water to me an infinitely more drinkable beverage than any other 
mineral water I had ever tasted, either in Great Britain or else- 
where, had it not been for the above-stated fact of its inaptitude in 
cases where there is the suspicion of phthisical complaint. Whence 
this agreeability proceeded, I am not enough of a chemist confidently 
to say. Those who are may be able to do so from perusal of the 
following — which is, as I was on the spot informed. Sir Humphrey 
Davy's and Professor Faraday's analysis of the solid contents in a 
gallon of Congress water : — 

Grains. 

Chloride'of sodium, 385-44 

Hydriodate of soda. 4-02 

Amount carried forward, 3b9.46 



TROY. 253 

Amount bronglit forward, 38S'4r) 

Carbonate of lime, llG-00 

Carbonate of magnesia, • • » . • 6G-80 

Oxide of iron, 00*64 

Carbonate of soda, 00'5G 

Hydrobromate of potash, (a trace,) 00.00 

Solid contents in a gallon, 563-46 

Besides the Congress Spring, wHcli is tlie one generally resorted 
to, there is, at Saratoga, another spring called Rock Spring, the wa- 
ters of which, although of greatly inferior strength, and therefore 
little used, are worthy of a visit, were it only on account of the 
singular formation and appearance of the detached round stone or 
rock up which they seem to come, and out of which they unques- 
tionably flow. The theory is, that the water holds in solution a 
considerable portion of lime, the gradual deposition of which, on 
the escape of the carbonic acid gas, has, in the course of ages, and 
while the land was in the possession of the red man, formed the very 
singular stone which now constitutes one of the objects of the white 
man's curiosity. 

By the last census, the resident population of Saratoga was 3700 
inhabitants ; but it will be readily understood that the town depends 
mainly for its existence, as well as for its importance, on the migra- 
tory population from the north and south, who swarm in the hotels, 
occupy the colonnades, perambulate the road-like streets, and lounge, 
gossip, and flirt at the springs during the three months, or thereby, 
which form the Saratoga season. 

The hotels of Saratoga are large and numerous, there being about 
half-a-dozen mammoth establishments, besides several smaller ones. 
The streets are long and broad, and the chief street or avenue (in 
which the principal hotels are situated) is shaded by trees on each 
side. But, being mainly built of wood, Saratoga has suffered, and 
is yet likely to suffer much, from being devastated by fire. 

From Saratoga I proceeded to Troy, passing not far from the vil- 
lage of Boston Spa, where there are springs formerly held in repute, 
(having been first discovered from its being observed that the wild 
deer frequented the spot,) somewhat akin to, but now in a great 
measure eclipsed by, the more fashionable and popular springs of 
Saratoga. The distance from Saratoga to Troy is thirty-two miles, 
and the journey is performed by a railway, which is carried over the 
Hudson by a square wooden tunnel, of rather gigantic dimensions, 
and of extraordinary as well as ingenious formation. The city^ of Troy, 
as it is called, is a town of some 20,000 inhabitants, and is one of 
those places which, by the rapidity of their progress in wealth, ex- 
tent, and population, speak more forcibly than do any other appear- 
ances of the onward progress of the American nation. 

22 



254 ALBANY. 

Though only seven miles distant from the older, larger, and, as 
yet, much more beautiful town of Albany, Troy has advanced and is 
advancing with very rapid strides ; while it is said that Albany, with 
all its apparent advantages, is making but little progress. Probably 
this is owing to the relative position of the two places. Both towns 
are situated on the Hudson, and both owe their importance to their 
connexion with that noble stream. But Troy is higher up, and at 
the extremity of the river navigation, and thus seems likely, event- 
ually, to draw to itself the larger share of what may be called the 
"through traffic;'^ so that it will, in all probability, in the end be- 
come the great entrepot to which will be sent the goods exported 
from, or imported into, the large and fertile country on the frontier 
of which it may be said to stand. 

It were a mistake to suppose that the progress of all the towns 
and cities of the American Union has been an onward and an im- 
proving one. There, as in the Old Country whence she has sprung, 
everything depends on the judiciousness of the site. As a general 
rule, land in the United States has risen, and will rise, in value. 
But this is not universally true : there are lands in very many places, 
in almost all the states of the American Union, that do not rise. In 
short, the elements of success in the new, are just the same as they 
are in the Old Country. The same cause — namely, the excellence 
of its position, and the greatness of its resources for trade, which 
have in the New World caused New York to increase in wealth and 
population with such enormous rapidity — has, in the Old World, 
advanced the city of Glasgow, in the same respects, in nearly an 
equal ratio. 

For the facility of trafl&c, the railway is laid through the centre of 
the principal streets of Troy ; but, to lessen the chance of accident, 
the locomotives are detached, (here as well as at other places,) and 
the cars drawn through the streets by means of horses. 

The distance between Troy and Albany is, as 1 have already men- 
tioned, only seven miles; and to perform this short journey the 
traveller has the choice of the stage, the steamboat, and the railway. 
I abjured the former, induced thereto by the warnings of others, 
and some slight personal experience; and of the two latter modes of 
progression, I made choice of the rail, simply because, at the time, 
it involved least trouble. 

The town of Albany is believed to stand on the spot which formed 
the extreme point to which Henry Hudson ascended, when he dis- 
covered the river which bears his name, in the year 1607; and the 
city received its present name from the English settlers, who named 
the town at the mouth of the river New York, and this place Al- 
bany, in honour of the brother of King Charles II., whose titles, 
were Duke of York and Albany. Being thus of more than ordinary 



THE HUDSON. 255 

antiquity for a transatlantic city, Albany displays more than the 
usual transatlantic solidity; and although it cannot boast the hot-bed 
progress of such towns as Cincinnati, or that it has kept pace with 
the gigantic sister city which shared with it the titles of the English 
Duke, Albany is nevertheless a very pleasing town, of some fifty 
thousand inhabitants, and about as handsome, in many parts, as I 
think it is possible to make a town of a purely trading character, 
and which is mainly built of bricks ] for, accustomed in earlier life 
to the stone edifices of Scotland, I feel it diflacult to disabuse my 
mind of a cotton-mill impression, when I look along a street which 
is entirely composed of brick houses. 

Albany contains some public buildings of merit. The City Hall, 
built of white marble, with its Ionic facade, pleased me much, and 
not less so in that it appealed to my nationality by a portrait of Sir 
Walter Scott which it contains. The State Hall, in the vicinity of 
the City Hall, is a large building; and the Capitol is a third edifice 
deserving a visit. Of the streets. State Street is the principal ; and 
it is a very handsome, broad street, although of varying widths. 

Having devoted only a day to a general inspection of Albany, I 
embarked, with some impatience, on board a steamer called the 
Alida, at seven o'clock in the morning, so that I might have the 
whole day to observe the scenery of the Hudson or North Eiver. 
I say I did so with impatience ; for although I had, within a very 
short period, and but a short time before, witnessed a great succes- 
sion and variety of river scenery on the Mississippi, the Ohio, the 
Niagara, and the St. Lawrence, (not to speak of the previously 
seen river scenery of the Old World,) yet the accounts I had heard 
from friends in Europe, and from fellow-travellers in America, of 
the extreme beauty of the scenery of the Hudson, had raised my 
expectations to a high pitch. Such past experiences and present 
expectations, do not seem to be such as were likely to make me an 
easily pleased observer ; and yet I can most honestly say I was not 
disappointed. The Hudson equalled, and in many places surpassed, 
in beauty and in grandeur, — but chiefly in beauty, — my most san- 
guine expectations. Indeed, I feel that, even had it been less at- 
tractive than it is, I would scarce have been disappointed. So far 
as my own feelings enable me to judge, I think that the more one 
sees of the beauties or the majesties of nature, the more easily will 
they be pleased with succeeding scenes of a similar character. 
The taste for the sublime and beautiful in nature palls not, nor 
does it become easily satiated; on the contrary, and like YirgiFs 
beautiful impersonation of fame, 

" Vires acquirit eundo — " 
It gathers strength as it proceeds. And not only so, but the per- 



256 THE ^HUDSON. 

ception^ like the memory, becomes more acute by exercise ; and 
new beauties are perceived in each successive scene, simply be- 
cause, by the experience acquired when visiting previous ones, the 
eye has become more acute and alive to beauty and grace. Such 
was my experience at the Falls of Montmorenci : I did not admire 
them less because I had Niagara fresh and living in my recollec- 
tion. Such were my feelings now : I did not for a moment feel 
that there was any jostling between the claims of the St. Lawrence 
and the Hudson ; each had its own ideal, which, while it permitted 
contrast, admitted not of any close or invidious comparison. 

Mere descriptive writing, save from the hands of a master of 
such composition, is very apt to weary ; and as I cannot with truth 
say that my voyage down the Hudson, from Albany to New York, 
was varied by any of those ''• moving incidents by flood or fell,^' or 
by any of those extraordinary conversations with Yankee fellow- 
passengers — or still more extraordinary dialogues between Irish- 
men and negroes, with which some writers of travels in the United 
States have been able to intersperse, garnish, and give spiciness to 
their narrations — I will in the course of a very few sentences epi- 
tomise the numerous notes I have made, relative to the characte- 
ristics of this noble and majestic river. True, were I to sacrifice 
truth for the sake of effect, I might here introduce some of the 
numerous stories of Negro cunning, and Yankee art, or rather prac- 
tical joking, of which one hears so much in the West Indies and 
in America : And — particularly as my trip down the river was 
made only ten days after that appalling accident, the running down 
of the steamer Empire City, by the schooner Noah Brown, when, 
at the hour of midnight, above a hundred and twenty human be- 
ings were at once sunk in the Hudson, to rise no more in time — I 
might intersperse my narrative with some details of the dangers 
attending steamboat sailing on the rivers and in the bays of New 
England. But all this would be to borrow from the experiences 
of others, under the pretence of describing my own, while my 
main, and indeed sole object, is to give an exact impress of facts 
as they occurred. As, therefore, I neither saw nor heard of diffi- 
culties, dangers, or marvels, I have none to record. But I have 
to record that, for about ten hours, I enjoyed one of the most de- 
lightful sails it has ever been my good fortune to enjoy, passing 
during that time a space of some hundred and fifty miles, down a 
briskly running, clear, bright, and often broad river, and through 
a succession of scenery which, while it was at all times fine and 
ever varying, was in many places majestic if not sublime. In par- 
ticular, that part of the scenery where the river, with a narrower 
and more pent-in channel, but with greater speed, and as it were 
more determination, forces itself through the Highlands, is rich in 



THE HUDSON. 257 

scenes of exceedingly picturesque beauty. For some hours after 
leaving Albany, the banks, though by no means devoid of beauty, 
are comparatively flat and tame; but about fifteen miles above 
West Point, and when you come in clear view of the Catskill 
Mountains, the scene changes, and for some time the sail lies be- 
tween picturesque hills on either side, through the midst of which 
the noble river seems to feel, and occasionally to force, its way. At 
West Point, (as beautiful a spot as the eye can rest on,) the scene is at 
its loveliest ; and for ten miles below, and some ten or fifteen above, 
there is a succession of mountain and lake scenery, which is ex- 
ceedingly beautiful and pleasing, and which, were the mountains 
somewhat loftier, and more storm-scalped, would not be unlike 
some of the noble scenery to be seen in the Firth of Clyde. But 
in making this comparison, and while I would place the scenery of 
the river on the banks of which I was born second to none I ever 
saw, the observation is not meant as involving anything disrespect- 
ful or derogatory to the Hudson. "'Twere sacrilege to think so. 
If the hills of the Hudson would look tame in the presence of the 
majestic mountains of Arran, or of Cunninghame, Kin tyre, or 
Cowall — those hills, and the rest of the scenery through which the 
Hudson pours its waters, have other beauties — beauties of foliage 
and of verdure — peculiar to themselves, which preclude any proper 
or close comparison between them and the heath-clad hills of the 
land of ^^ mountain and of flood.^^ The entire course of the Hudson 
is said to be three hundred miles in length. It is, however, only 
navigable for sea-going ships as far as the town which rejoices in 
the same name as the river, and which is one hundred and sixteen 
miles distant from New York. For coasting vessels and steamers, 
the stream is navigable for nearly forty miles farther, or as far as 
the rising city of Troy. In width it varies considerably. For fully 
twenty miles above New York the breadth is about a mile, but 
while passing through the romantic region appropriately termed 
the Highlands, the beautiful river is contracted into narrow limits, 
while the mountains rise on either side, many of them to a height 
exceeding a thousand feet. Occasionally it expands to a width of 
between three or four miles. 



22* 



258 ■ ^EW YORK. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

" I love not nature less, 

But man the more." Btron. ? 

" Ilumanum sum ; nihil humanum a me alienum puto." * 

Landing at New York in the evening, I proceeded to Delmonico's 
hotel in Broadway, attracted thereto, as has been already confesse d, 
as much by the allurement that the house was managed more in the 
English than in the American style, as by any other consideration. 
For, while on the principle of chacun d son gout, I certainly have no 
objections either to my American brethren, or to any other body of 
men, taking their meals in public and at large ordinaries; nay, while 
I often, and indeed generally, enjoyed doing so, and would desire 
occasionally to practise it at home, were it only for the spirit of ob- 
servation and sociality it engenders or promotes; and farther, while 
I have nothing to complain of as to the cuisine of America, (although 
I do think and maintain that it is inferior to that of England,) still, as a 
practical rule, I do not like the call to be hungry and thirsty at par- 
ticular hours, just because other people are so : nay more I cannot 
be so — I cannot so drill my appetite. It was therefore with a satis- 
faction disproportionate to the event^ that I found myself at Delmo- 
nico's hotel at free will to breakfast when I chose, dine when I 
chose, and sup when I chose, and that without the disheartening con- 
viction, that I was thereby allowing all the tit-bits to be consumed 
by the more regular stagers, who took their places at the table d'hote. 
In other words, there is no ordinary at Delmonico's. 

Reader, be not afraid; it is not my intention to weary you with 
the thrice-told tale, an account of the commercial, I had almost said 
the real, (but, if I did, neither fny Boston nor my Washington 
friends would forgive me,) capital of the United States of America. 
But fidelity to my motto of " nothing extenuate," requires me to say 
that, were I to do so, I fear my description would scarcely tally with 
— or at least would not come quite up to— the generally all-eulo-, 
gistic descriptions given of this great city. For, truth to say. New 
York at first disappointed me ; and that disappointment did not en- 
tirely wear ofi" during the two visits I paid to it ere I left the conti- 
nent of America. The disappointment of the first sight might be 
accounted for by the fact that I landed at New York on the afternoon 
of a miserably dull, dark day, and that for the two succeeding days 
it rained, if not very copiously, at least so continuously, as to compel 
me either to refrain from sight-seeing altogether, or to see New York 
under circumstances anything but advantageous. But the sun shone 



NEW YORK. 259 

OD the city and its vicinity during the whole of my second visit; and 
unless it be really true, as I think it is, that New York is not the 
handsome city it is generally represented to be, I cannot otherwise 
account for my continued disappointment, than by supposing that 
the inflated accounts given me by my American friends in Great 
Britain had raised my expectations to an unreasonable pitch. I have 
already pleaded guilty to an incapacity (if so it be) of comparing one 
scene in nature with another, so as to form and declare a preference 
for the one over the other ; and as it is with me in regard to natural 
scenes, so is it also, in part at least, as regards artificial ones. Towns 
can be more accurately compared than landscapes, and the greatness 
of cities than the magnificence of nature. But still it is very diffi- 
cult, in this way, to give a correct idea of any town or city. Each 
has various points peculiar to itself — points, the non-existence of 
which, in the place to which it may be compared, precludes the pos- 
sibility of drawing a correct parallel between the two. I shall not 
therefore try to give my reader a general idea of New York, by com- 
paring or contrasting it with any European town, farther than by say- 
ing, that I thought it more like Liverpool than any other town in 
Britain. Neither will I contrast it with any city on its own seaboard, 
save by remarking that, for myself, I would prefer a residence in 
Boston or in Philadelphia to one in New York. 

But, while I write thus indefinitely of New York as a whole, I can 
honestly write more definitely, and in terms of unqualified praise, of 
many views and scenes in and connected with it. In particular, the 
bay and harbour of New York rise to my memory as among the most 
beautiful and commodious to be found in the world. They exhibit 
a scene of activity and life which is exceedingly inspiriting. Formed 
by the junction or confluence of the noble Hudson with a strait named 
the East river, (which connects Long Island sound with the harbour,) 
the bay of N^w York stretches before and on each side of you, as 
you stand on the battery, unfolding with its numerous steamers and 
other vessels, in motion or at anchor, a seaward view which is beau- 
tiful exceedingly. Before you lies Governor's or Nutton Island, with 
its fortifications. On the left is Brooklyn on Long Island, with 
its elevated, regularly built streets, displaying all the signs of the 
prosperity, without the noise, bustle, and confusion of New York it- 
self ; and on the right stands Jersey city, also a rising suburb of 
New York, and the starting point for Philadelphia and the south. 
Altogether, I know not a view of the city kind that has gratified me 
more. But, as much of the interest depends on the moving nature 
of the panorama which stretches before you, and as that cannot be 
communicated on paper, I shall not attempt a more detailed descrip- 
tion, but close my remarks on the river and bay scenery of New 
Y'ork; by observing that, whatever disappointment I felt, from hav- 



260 NEW YORK. 

had my expectations o!;er-excited as to tlie architectural beauty of the 
city, was more than compensated by the gratification afforded by the 
views of the bay and of the harbour, of the beauty of which I was 
surprised I had heard so little. 

At the period of my visit, the harbour of New York and its vicinity 
exhibited signs of activity even greater than usual, from the large 
number of vessels which were then in progress of being built. Whe- 
ther the activity in this respect had anything to do with the repeal 
by England of her Navigation Laws, I had no means of accurately 
ascertaining. The opinions expressed by the different practical men 
in America, I had the opportunity of consulting on the subject, were 
very various — as also were the opinions they expressed as to the 
effect of the measure alluded to upon England'* naval supremacy and 
general prosperity — some maintaining that the repeal was destructive 
of the best interests of Britain ; others, that it was certain to advance 
them very greatly. 

Into the much-agitated and all-important question of what is to be 
the effect of that repeal, I refrain from entering, simply because of 
the unappropriateness of its discussion in a work of this nature. But 
whatever may be the consequences of the repeal of the Navigation 
Laws of England, and whether that act had or had not anything to 
do with the ship-building activity apparent in New York in the 
month of June 1849, the fact still remains, that such activity was 
very great. At the time of which I write, there were in the course 
of building, in the ship-building yards of New York, at least twelve 
steamers. Five of these steamers were ships of 3000 tons each — 
two of these five at least were intended for the transatlantic trade 
with the mother country. Among the other seven steamers, there 
was one steamship of 2200 tons — another of 600 tons, and a 
third of 400 tons : the remaining four were steamers of the smaller 
size, intended for river navigation and short distances* Of sailing 
vessels there were nearly a dozen of large size (above a thousand tons 
each) then on the stocks, besides a barque of 600 tons and a schooner 
of 150 tons. These, with the vessels undergoing repair, created, it 
may readily be conceived, a bustle and activity, in the ship-building 
department at New York, strongly indicative of prosperity. 

When nothing better is to be had, I have oftener than once 
found interest, if not amusement, in turning over the pages of a 
Street Directory. Such was my occupation on the morning of the 
singularly continuously wet day which succeeded my arrival at New 
York, while waiting the appearance of a travelling friend, with whom 
I had resolved to dare the elements in an attempt to see Haarlem 
aqueduct, and the reservoir of the Croton water-works, in weather 
but too analogous to themselves. And I am sure there is scarce a 
city in the world, so much of whose origin and history is to be found 



NEW YORK. 261 

imaged forth in the kind of names to be found in its Directory. 
French, German, Scotch, Irish, and English names (bnt the latter 
predominating) recurring alternately, and in reiterated succession 
jostling each other, proclaim the fact that New York has been 
peopled from almost all the countries of Europe, but chiefly from 
Great Britain, just as plainly as such names as those of Patience, 
Fear, Christian, Experience, Jonathan, Dearborn, Elder, and the 
like, so often yet found among the inhabitants of Plymouth (Massa- 
chusetts) and its neighbourhood, recall the memory of the noble and 
devoted Puritans who crossed the Atlantic in the little Mayflower, 
in search of that liberty of conscience and of worship, unjustly and 
unwisely denied them by an unenlightened monarch and government 
at home — those enliglitened, and at same time patriotic emigrants, 
"who, carrying with them that love of country which forms one of the 
best feelings of the human heart, named their first settlement in the 
then barbarous land of their adoption — their far-off home across the 
waters — by the name of Plymouth, after the last port in England 
from which they had sailed. 

New York, or rather the island on which it stands, was first 
occupied as a place of permanent possession (having been previously 
in the occupancy of a very fierce tribe of native Indians) by the 
Dutch in 1615 ; but so little did it for a long time progress, that in 
1677 it is said to have contained only 2000 inhabitants. In 1800 
its population was somewhat above 60,000 ; and at present its in- 
habitants number above 400,000, (in 1845 they were 366,785,) — a 
rapidity of increase nearly paralleled in Great Britian by that of the 
city of Glasgow, which at the date of the Union between England 
and Scotland (1707) had but 14,000, and in 1791 only 66,578 in- 
habitants 'j while at present it contains a population of fully 
350,000 

But the parallel between New York and Glasgow might be carried 
much beyond a comparison in point of population ; and it is aided, 
and rendered interesting throughout, by the fact that both of these 
cities are eminently and characteristically mercantile — marts of com- 
merce and emporiums of trade — and that there are not to be found 
on the face of the globe any two cities whose commercial prosperity 
is more associated or inseparable. No city in the American Union 
would suffer more from the breaking out of war between Great 
Britain and the American Republic, were so unfortunate an event to 
happen, than would that of New York ; and no town in the United 
Kingdom would sustain more injury from a war between England 
and America than would the city of Glasgow. As they are thus 
similar in their interests, as well as in their prevailing characteristics, 
it is interesting to observe how similar New York and Glasgow have 
been in their onward progress. Dating the commencement of its 



262 NEW YORK. 

existence from 1615, the American city has — particularly since the 
date of the English acquisition, and still more since the era of 
American independence — increased with a rapidity which now enables 
it to rank among the largest emporiums of the world, there being 
not more than six European cities of larger size. So far as yet built, 
the beautiful city of New York occupies but a part of Manhattan 
Island ; but the ambitious design is, that it should eventually fill up 
the whole ; and it is obviously destined to bear out the anticipation 
of the founders. Some idea of the extent to which New York will 
then have increased may be gathered from the fact that Manhattan 
Island is upwards of thirteen miles in length, with an average 
breadth of about a mile, and contains not less than 14,000 acres of 
land. This island, formed by the confluence ♦of a strait called the 
East River, with the Hudson or north river, is generally level, and 
well adapted for building ; though this very flatness is an obstacle to 
the picturesque beauty of the town. 

The position of New York on the map of the world points it out 
as a place of trade ; and of its past success and present progression, 
in this respect, the stranger needs no further evidence than a glance 
at its noble harbour and crowded wharves, or a visit to its splendid 
customhouse — the latter a building of the Doric order of architecture, 
covering a large space of ground, and built at an expense of 
1,175,000 dollars, (nearly £240,000 sterling,) including in this sum 
the price paid for the furniture and the ground. This fact of the 
costliness of the New York customhouse reminds me, however, of 
the propriety or qualifying the above observations, by remarking that, 
although Glasgow may stand a comparison with the American em- 
porium in some respects, the elegance or expense of her customhouse 
is certainly not among them. A building more disproportioned or 
inadequate to the wants of the community, or to the extent of busi- 
ness conducted in it, than is the customhouse at Grlasgow, it were 
difficult to find in any town in the world. In 1811, when the total 
amount of the duties of customs collected at Glasgow were only 
£3124 2s. 4Jd., or even up to 1843 (in which year the amount had 
increased to the sum of £497,7281 Os. 2d., and when Glasgow was 
advanced from a second class to a first class port) there might have 
been some apology for refusing or at least for delaying, to make the 
customhouse a handsome building. But now, when the duties of 
customs annually collected exceed the very large sum of £650,000 
sterling, (much more than the whole revenue the island of Cuba 
yields to Spain,) it were surely not too much to expect that the pub- 
lic building in which business of this nature, and of this magnitude, 
is transacted, should be something, at least, of an ornament to the 
city in which it is placed. 

The chief object in view, in thus drawing a comparison between 



NEW YORK, 



263 



the advancement respectively made by the cities of New York and 
Glasgow, was not only to illustrate the bond of connexion which so 
far exists between the two that the one may be almost said to reflect 
the prosperity of the other ; but also to point the attention of our 
American friends to a fact which, it appeared to me, some of them 
are disposed to overlook — viz., to the fact that progression has not 
been all on their side of the Atlantic : while they have been going 
forward, the mother country has certainly not been standing still. 
But having thus alluded to the subject, it may neither be out of 
place nor uninteresting (particularly now that a direct line of steam 
communication is about to be opened between Glasgow and New 
York) to give the following tabular statement, made up from official 
documents, to which I have had access through the kindness of the 
gentleman in charge of them, showing at one view, and for different 
years, the porportions existing between the numbers which represent 
the population, and those which express the respective amounts of 
the duties of custom, and of revenue, of the river connected with the 
city of Glasgow. 



Date. 


Population. 


Justomhouse Duties. 


Eevenue of River. 


1811 


11,046 


£ s. d. 


£ s. d. 


1S16 


120,000 


3,124 2 4i 


4,755 3 8 


1821 


147,043 


8,890 18 1 


5,843 7 8 


1831 


202,426 


16,147 17 7 


8,070 2 2 


1841 


282,134 


68,741 5 9 


18,932 7 


1849 


about 350,000 


526,100 11 


50,666 19 2 






640,568 17 10 


59,034 14 1* 



The above facts will be sufficient to test the soundness of my posi- 
tion, that there is much ground for a comparison between New York 
and Glasgow, in their progress and advancement in commercial 
wealth and greatness, as well as to satisfy any transatlantic reader 
that the Old Country is very far from losing ground in the social or 
commercial race. But to return to the mercantile metropolis of the 
great republic. 

It is very far from my intention to give a detailed account of what 
may be called the memorabilia of the commercial metropolis of Ame- 
rica ; at the same time the notice of a few of the more prominent of 
them may prove not uninteresting or unacceptable ; and their descrip- 
tion will at all events show, even to those who may be disposed 

* In 1847, the Customhouse duties collected at Glasgow, amounted to the still 
larger sum of £657,834, 19s. 6d. The experience of the opening months of the 
current year leads to the conclu5ion, that the amount of the revenue for 1850 will 
not be less than £700,000, being more than the whole revenue of England in the 
reign of Henry V. 



264 NEW YORK. 

to regard my American impressions as somewhat too favourable and 
eulogistic, that it was at least my endeavour to jtidge for myself — 
to form my own opinions from what I saw, in so far as opportunity 
was afforded me for so doing. Whether the opportunities afforded 
justify the opinions expressed, it is for the reader to determine. 

Some writers have drawn, or attempted to draw, a parallel between 
London and New York. This maj^ be done, but it is scarcely fair. 
Farther than in their being severally and respectively the two largest 
cities in Great Britain and in America, there is no proper parallelism 
between them. To talk of the sights and scenes in New York as 
equally interesting, and fully as extraordinary, as are the sights and 
scenes of daily exhibition in that great world of a city the modern 
Babylon, is simply nonsense — pure nonsense. Such statements, 
describing New York as displaying many of the characteristics of 
London, generally originate in a desire to bepraise the former city. 
They usually emanate from a class from whose exaggerations America 
and American society have suffered, and are likely to suffer, more in 
European estimation than they have ever done from unjust criticism 
of the many fault-finders, who (adopting old Weller's advice to Pick- 
wick) visit the United States only to come back and write a book 
about the ^' Merrikins as ^11 pay their expenses and more, if they 
only blows ^em up enough." 

The gentlemen referred to usually visit the United States for a 
purpose; they go out to pick up facts to square with some precon- 
ceived theory of politics or of trade, which they or their patrons are 
previously pledged to support. Everything is seen, or at least 
reported, under the influence of a spirit of exaggeration. On the one 
hand, merely trifling defects become abominable deformities ; while, 
on the other, those things which are simply mentionable as worthy 
of being recorded, are dignified into marvels to be commented on 
with admiration. Thus it is that an attempt has been made to 
describe the Whirl of Life exhibited in Nev^ York as like the extra- 
ordinary scene daily witnessed in that largest and most wonderful 
of all large cities — the city of London : but the comparison is extra- 
vagant. 

No doubt, there are some points of accordance and similarity 
between New York and London. Of these the number of omni- 
buses is one. On application to official authority, I find that 
there are fully one thousand licensed omnibuses now plying in 
the streets of the modern Babylon. In summer and winter, the 
prrticular description of omnibus, as well as the routes of travel, 
varies a little, there being in spring and summer more of what are 
considered country vehicles, (omnibuses going to a distance,) and, 
in winter, more of those which confine themselves to the streets 
of the town. But as a general rule, the total number travelling 



NEW YORK. 



2C5 



tlie streets of London is about a thousand. Almost all these ve- 
hicles are licensed to carry thirteen passengers inside, and nine 
out; and (as maybe gathered from their success and increase) 
they receive a very large amount of public patronage. Now re- 
gard being had to the size of New York, the number of such vehi- 
cles in It IS fully as great. In a number of the New York Po^t of 
November 1849, it is stated by a correspondent, (who described 
himself as an '' old driver of a New York omnibus in one of the 
oldest routes of that city, for a term of seven years,") that the 
entire number then plying in the streets of New York, was 876: 
and, large as the number is, I fully credit the statement. Stand- 
ing at the 4oor of Delmonico's hotel in Broadway, past which 
most of the omnibuses drive, I have noted the passing of eighteen 
crowded omnibuses within the period of five minutes. It did not 
however, appear to me that the number of street carriages for oc- 
casional hire were as great in New York as might have been ex- 
pected m a city of the size, and this possibly may, in some mea- 
sure, account for the unusually large proportion of omnibuses. In 
London, the number of carriages for hire is very great— so great 
that m this present year (1850) there are already no less than 
2864 coaches and cabs licensed for public accommodation. 

Among the notabilia of New York I would include the hotels— 
the hotels as a class. It is not my intention to enumerate them ; 
but if the European traveller visiting New York has an extra day 
or two to spend in sight-seeing, I recommend him to devote it or 
them to a ramble through the public rooms, and to a general in- 
spection of the hotels. I venture to predict that the result will 
repay the trouble, and give him some new notions of the people 
he has crossed the Atlantic to see. 

Who has not heard of the water-works of New York ?— those 
works which, in Yankee phrase, are said to be capable of supply- 
ing water to drown all creation. An account of a visit to the chief 
emporium of the New World would certainly be incomplete, were 
It not to contain some account of this extensive and extremely 
useful undertaking. The Croton water-works of New York— so 
called from the name of the river whence they take their rise — 
commence at a distance of nearly 40 miles from the city. At this 
place the waters are collected by a dam of 250 feet long, 40 feet 
high, 70 feet wide at the bottom, and 7 feet wide at the top. 
Thence, tunneling and embanking bring the waters to the Haar- 
lem river, over which it is carried by an aqueduct bridge of 1400 
feet long, at an elevation of 114 feet above tide-mark. From the 
bridge the water is conveyed (still by a covered archway) to what 
IS called the receiving reservoir, which is situated in Eighty-sixth 
street, 38 miles distant from the Croton dam. This reservoir is 

23 



266 NEW YORK. 

divided into two compartments or ponds, and is said (and the ap- 
pearance seems to justify the statement) to contain 150,000,000 
gallons of water, and to cover 35 acres of land. From the re- 
ceiving reservoir, the waters are conveyed to the distributing 
reservoir at Fortieth street. The distributing reservoir covers four 
acres, and is said to contain 20,000,000 gallons of water. The 
whole undertaking is on the gravitation principle, the descent 
being at the average rate of about 13J inches per mile. The 
water is good, though it seemed to me somewhat brownish ; and 
it is said that the supply is equivalent to about 60,000,000 gallons 
in the twenty-four hours ! The whole cost of the work was nearly 
14,000,000 dollars — greatly more than double the amount of the 
original estimate. 

The above general description will enable the reader to judge of 
the magnitude of this noble undertaking. The bridge over Haar- 
lem river is a great achievement of architectural and mechanical 
skill — even in these days of engineering wonders. But it is the 
enlightened policy which dictated such a work that is the most 
commendable part of the affair. An ample supply of water is of 
the very first consequence to the increase of a large town ; and, in 
so far anticipating the growth of the city and the wants of the 
inhabitants, the promoters of the Croton water-works showed a 
far-sighted wisdom, which is worthy of all praise and imitation. 
The undertaking was a public one, and the expense defrayed from 
the city charter-chest, and it is probably a fortunate circumstance 
that the actual cost was not foreseen. Even as it was, the citizens 
were by no means unanimous in wishing it undertaken. Out of 
the 17,330 who voted on the subject, nearly 6000 votes were 
against the incurring of the expense. At first, the undertaking 
was not a remunerating one ; now, there is a very fair revenue for 
the amount expended. 

When passing the dismantled Opera House of New York, I was 
reminded of the very disgraceful riot of which it was the scene, 
and in part the cause, and which had its origin in disputes between 
Mr. Macready and Mr. Forrest, or rather in the attack of the lat- 
ter upon the former. This popular disturbance occurred but a 
very short time before my arrival in the city ; and, together with 
the Canadian disturbances, and the running down of the steamer 
Empire City, in the North River, (by which upwards of one hun- 
dred and twenty persons were drowned,) it formed the prevailing 
topic of general conversation in New York. But it is not to in- 
troduce any opinion of my own that I have made mention of this 
matter of the riot at the New York Opera House in May 1849. 
It is to pay what I feel to be a deserved tribute to the New York 
press that I have done so. With one unworthy exception, I did 



NEW YORK. 267 

not hit upon a single paper that took anything save a very dispas- 
sionate view of the affair, or that unworthily attempted to make 
the subject a pretext for inflaming party or national jealousy. 
Several of them professed the view that the disturbance in ques- 
tion had a deeper seat, and a more hidden origin, than the mere 
quarrel or difference in opinion between or about the two votaries 
of Thespis ; but, with the exception I have alluded to, I did not 
observe that any of the newspapers sought to make an unworthy 
use of the supposed cause of the disturbance ; while many of them 
ridiculed the attempt made by the excepted print to give to the 
quarrel the air of a national dispute. And well they might ; for 
surely, and on whatever side the justice of the quarrel may be 
supposed to lie, it would be as reasonable to make a quarrel be- 
tween any two men in any rank of life, however humble, the one 
an Englishman and the other an American, a cause of national 
jealousy, as it would be so to dignify a dispute between two actors, 
however eminent in their calling they be. But it was not only in 
this way that the generality of the American press displayed their 
candour in relation to this affair. Having, on other subjects, seen 
in some papers such a truckling to mobocracy, and such an echo- 
ing of the mere prejudices of the people in favour of anything 
connected with their own side of the Atlantic, as did not give me 
a very high opinion of the newspaper press of America, I confess 
I was agreeably pleased to find that so many of them came forth 
so decidedly and at once, in vindication of Mr. Macready, and in 
reprobation of their own countryman — pleased, not, I trust, be- 
cause Mr. Forrest was condemned, but because the defence of 
Macready argued a love of fair play, which I would fain believe 
animates Jonathan the son, in America, as much as it does, and 
always has done, John Bull the father, in Old England. The fol- 
lowing passage from the Neio York Police Gazette of 19th May 
1849, which might be paralleled by quotations from sundry other 
New York papers, will explain my meaning : — 

" The question,^^ says the editor of that print, when investigat- 
ing the causes which led to the riot,* and consequent destruction 
of the Opera House, ^^ is : who bred the mischief, and who set its 
malevolent spirit on the face of the waters ? These were the evil- 
doers ; and to these, wherever we may find them, and whoever they 

* The difSculty of suppressing this riot — even after a regiment of cavalry, a 
division of the State Militia, and a batallion of the National Guards, and two pieces 
of artillery, were employed to restore order — furnishes a powerful illustration of 
the danger of a mobocracy in a republic. Beginning from an apparently trivial 
cause, the riot lasted for about six hours, and it was not quelled until twenty-two 
persons were killed and above thirty wounded — many of the latter mortally. The 
trial of the rioters lasted three weeks ; and the principal ringleader was condemned 
to one year's imprisonment, in addition to a fine of 250 dollars— a most inadequate 
punishment, surely, for such an offence. 



268 NEW YORK. 

may be, are we to turn with the complaints that strive within us, 
and to look to for ultimate satisfaction. 

" We are no public accuser, but we do not hesitate to involve 
ourself so far with contradiction, as to charge this mischief upon 
Mr. Forrest, and Mr. Forrest only, and to hold him answerable, in 
our resentments as a citizen, for all the evil that has taken place. 

" It is he who, having, in his conceit, attributed to a brother 
actor an opposition which was the caprice of undirected public 
taste, projected a quarrel, or rather a system of assault, that he 
has maintained with vicious pertinacity for years, and to which, for 
the purpose of subsidizing prejudice, he has sought to give the colour 
of a national dispute. 

^' The public, however, fully understood his aim ; and, despite 
Mr. Forrest's coarse inflammatory letters, were determined to take 
no notice of the matter. It was plainly a private quarrel. Mr. 
Macready was unaccused of a single word derogatory to American 
institutions or American character, and every community in which 
the rivals had appeared, until their arrival in New York, very sen- 
sibly seemed to think Forrest was big enough and rude enough to 
fight his own battles for himself, and more particularly as Mr. 
Macready, after a single explanation, had made him no reply.^' 

I would prosecute my description of the celebrities or memorabilia 
of New York, were it not that personal experience teaches me that 
such details are not in general very interesting in the perusal. Con- 
tenting myself, therefore, with the following remarks — viz., that I 
did not find Broadway either so broad a way, or so straight a way, or 
so shady a way, or so well paved a way, as the glowing accounts of 
others had led me to anticipate — that a hurried visit to New York 
University, with my friend Mr. Kimball, delighted me very greatly 
— that, of all the architectural beauties of New York, the tower and 
spire of the old Trinity Church (situated in Broadway, and the 
successor of the original structure of the same name founded in 
1696, during the reign of William and Mary) has left a most pleas- 
ing and abiding impression on my mind of its exceedingly chaste 
architectural beauty — and that the City Hall, though, on the whole, 
(combining situation with extent and ornament,) tbe finest erection 
in the city, did not please my eye half so much as some other 
buildings of lesser pretension and note, I shall proceed with my 
narrative by observing, that it was on a very lovely afternoon, at 
four o'clock, that I started from New York for Philadelphia. 

There are two routes, either of which the traveller may pursue, 
in going to Philadelphia ; and while I went the one way, and re- 
turned by the other, I cannot say that I saw any ground for a 
preference of the one over the other. The one (that by which I 
went) is by steamer, through Stateu Island Sound and Raritan 



PHILADELPHIA. 269 

Bay, and onwards by the Camden and Amboy Railway ; the other 
is by steam ferry to Jersey city, and thence by railway, crossing 
the Delaware to Philadelphia by means of a ferry. Both routes 
are cheap, good, and comfortable. The sail through Staten Island 
Sound and Raritan Bay is pleasing, although the banks are gene- 
rally low, and consequently tame. The country on either side is 
well cultivated; and sundry small towns or villages are from time 
to time seen. There are also a variety of neat villas, or gentle- 
men^ s seats. Some of these are of course handsomer than the 
rest, and several of them display much taste and elegance, both as 
regards situation and construction. But comparing such places 
with those to be seen in nearly every part of Great Britain, it were 
certainly not inaccurate to describe them as being, in general, of a 
medium character. Indeed, I would say, as regards the whole of 
the American Union, that its prevailing characteristic is a hand- 
some mediocrity — nothing either very high or very low ; so that 
if, on the one hand, you are but very seldom disheartened and dis- 
tressed by those exhibitions of poverty so frequently to be seen in 
the large cities of older and more thickly-peopled countries, you 
miss also, as ornaments in the landscape, those noble mansions, 
palaces, castles, and baronial halls, which give such a finish to an 
English scene — adorning the view, and at the same time carrying 
the mind back into the past with a flood of historic reminiscences. 
The comparative merits and advantages of the two states of things 
will be judged of by each reader according to his or her peculiar 
prepossessions. But the contrast between the two countries might 
be carried out in the same way, and to the same result, in reference 
to many other matters besides the country-seats of their wealthier 
classes. 

Arrived at South Amboy, a distance of twenty-eight miles from 
New York, you proceed at once by railway to Camden, a distance 
of sixty-one miles, and then, crossing the Delaware by steamboat, 
you at once find yourself in the Quaker and Quaker-like city of 

PHILADELPHIA, 

built on the space of ground lying between the rivers Delaware 
and Schuylkill, and at the confluence of the latter stream with the 
former. Philadelphia, albeit mainly built of brick, is nevertheless 
a very fine city. The white marble steps and facings to the base- 
ment stories of the private houses, give to the whole town an air 
of peculiar elegance. It is clean to a degree, tlnd it is regular 
almost to a fault — so methodical, that the rude sketch of it con- 
tained in the common road-book looks like a multiplication-table. 
The streets are in straight lines, those running north and south 

23* 



270 PHILADELPHIA. 

being at right angles with those running east and west. There is 
even a precision and a regularity in the manner in which they are 
numbered or named — those streets whose direction is north and 
south being numbered as first, second, third, &c., while those run- 
ning at right angles to them are named after trees, as Walnut, 
Chestnut, &c. Philadelphia seemed to me as if it had been laid 
down by a professor of mnemonics, in an endeavor to ascertain 
how far it was practicable so to lay out a great city, as to render 
it utterly impossible for the most obtuse stranger to lose his way 
in it. There is a large, broad street, called Market Street — so 
named, from the purpose to which the central space in it is de- 
voted ; and instead of feeling the presence of such a name an 
incongruity amidst the other numerical and botanical ones, you 
feel it to be a relief, as breaking, to a small extent, the unvarying 
sameness and uniformity. 

Some of the principal streets in Philadelphia are shaded with 
trees; and I observed at least one square which was all planted, over 
and throughout, with a view to shade — a hint that might be advan- 
tageously acted on, as regards some of the squares in the towns of 
the West Indian Islands. This tree-planted square in Philadelphia 
was a genuine square, although some of the framers of the city seem 
to have entertained somewhat heterodox notions of what constitutes 
a square ; and the only occasion on which I was at any loss to find a 
locality in this distractingly regular city, was when I proceeded to 
deliver to a lady resident, a letter of introduction I had been honour- 
ed with from her son, a highly intelligent merchant, carrying on 
business both in London and in New York. The letter was ad- 
dressed Portico Square; and it was only by diligent inquiry that I 
found that Portico Square was nothing more than one side of a very 
handsome street of private dwelling-houses, the square being con- 
stituted by the buildings as they fronted to each side of four dif- 
ferent streets. 

No town in the United States ofi'ers more objects to interest the 
stranger than does the Quaker City. The Fairmount Water-works, 
and, adjoining, the wire suspension-bridge; the State House, which 
contains a very good wooden statue of Washington, and in which the 
visitor is shown the room where the Declaration of Independence 
was signed; the Exchange, a very handsome, imposing edifice, but 
with only a very small portion of it applied to the purposes of a 
news-room; the beautiful cemetery at Laurel-hill, and the institution 
called Grirard College, besides various other buildings, objects, and 
places, of scarcelyless attraction, are well worthy of being visited, 
and will very amply repay the trouble required by visiting them. 
Leaving, however, most of these objects of attraction to the very 
general, and, of course, solely laudatory description of them contained 



PHILADELPHIA. 271 

in the guide-books, I shall here content myself with a few obser- 
vations on the Laurel-hill Cemetery and the Girard College, both 
because they are among the most recent of the additions to the 
Quaker City, and because they attracted most of my own attention 
during the time I spent in it. 

The cemetery at Laurel-hill, Philadelphia, stands' at a little dis- 
tance from the city, and on the banks of the river Schuylkill. Even 
in America, a country certainly distinguished by the exceeding beauty 
of the last resting-places for the remains of the departed, it is one of the 
most singularly beautiful and appropriately quiet spots that fancy can 
conceive. It covers a large space of ground, very tastefully laid off 
and planted ; and, without containing any monuments of great or 
eclipsing excellence, it has some of exceeding beauty and touching 
pathos. On entering, the visitor from Scotland is gratified by meet- 
ing with Thorn's stone statues of Sir Walter Scott, and of Old Mor- 
tality with his pony, which have here found a resting-place on the 
other side of the Atlantic. The monuments are generally, if not 
exclusively, (for I remember not a single exception,) composed of the 
white marlile which abounds in the neighbourhood, and which is 
exceedingly beautiful, although it does not seem to take on a very 
high polish. Among these monuments there are, as the reader may 
probably anticipate, the usual proportion of broken pitchers, shattered 
columns, quenched torches, sleeping lambs, weeping willows, and 
doves about to stretch their wings in flight, to be found in such 
places. Two tombs, erected to the memory of children, are beauti- 
ful in their simplicity. The one contains the simple inscription 
<' Our Mary ;" while the other consists of a column on a basement 
with the Christian names of the three children to whose memory it 
is erected (as " Jane,'^ " Charles,'^ " Frederick,'') engraven on it, 
each name within a wreath of sculptured flowers. On the top was 
the oft-repeated emblem of a sleeping lamb, and below was the quo- 
tation from Holy writ — 

" Of such is the kingdom of Heaven." 

The visitor to Philadelphia who omits to visit the cemetery at 
Laurel-hill will have cause to regret his omission. 

The institution called Girard College deserves separate mention, 
not only for the two reasons above assigned, but also on another and 
a different ground — viz., because of the controversy of which it has 
been made the text, as well in this country as in America. 

The Girard College, Philadelphia, is situated about a mile from 
the centre of the town. It is a handsome building of the Grecian 
character, consisting of a centre and two separate compartments on 
either side; the whole being surrounded by a wall, enclosing a space 
of ground little short of fifty acres. The centre building is the one 



272 PHILADELPHIA. 

which peculiarly constitutes the College, being devoted to* the pur- 
poses of education. It is, indeed, a very magnificent pile, having a 
front of about two hundred and twenty feet in length, and being 
surrounded by thirty-four white marble pillars, supporting an entab- 
lature. The roof is of the same material as the walls of the build- 
ing. The erections on each side — in all four in number — are intended 
for the residence of tlie scholars, the teachers, and professors. 
The whole is a very handsome affair ; but were I disposed to be 
critical, I would say that there appears to be an undue striving after 
an extra degree of plainness and stoical simplicity in some parts, 
which is not quite in keeping with the general unity of the design. 

On inquiring particularly into the history of this institution, chiefly 
with the view of comparing it with the many institutions similar in 
their general character which are to be found in my native country 
of Scotland, and particularly in Edinburgh, I had a copy of the will 
of " Stephen Girard, Esquire,'^ put into my hands, accompanied by 
certain information, of which the following statements embody the 
import : — 

Mr. Girard, who in his will describes himself as " mariner or 
merchant," was born at Bordeaux, in France, whence, in very early 
life, he proceeded first to the AVest Indies, and thereafter to New 
York, where he arrived somewhere about the year 1775, in the 
capacity of mate to a trading vessel. From New York, and after 
passing through various scenes, and engaging in different occupations, 
all of a very humble kind, Mr. Girard proceeded, in 1799, to Phila- 
delphia, and commenced trade there, by keeping a kind of " old 
curiosity shop'' — dealing in old iron and old rigging. It were foreign 
to the object of this book to follow his career minutely, nor would 
the doing so repay the labour : suffice it to say that, by industry and 
frugality, allied no doubt to high integrity and a far-seeing policy as 
a merchant, Mr. Girard rose to the position of one of the very first 
merchants and most opulent bankers in the country of his adoption, 
or indeed in the world ; and accumulated so large a fortune that, at 
the time of his death, on 26th December, 1831, the pecuniary amount 
he left behind him was estimated at the sum of from twelve to thir- 
teen millions of dollars, or from about £2,500,000 to £2,708,333 
sterling. To the end of his earthly career (and, although the date 
of his birth is involved in some obscurity, his age, at the time of his 
death, could not have been much less than the patriarchal one of 
ninety-five) Mr. Girard was devoted to trade ; so much so, that it is 
said in the sketch of his life, from which some of the statistics of 
this brief notice of him are taken, that his recreation was business, 
and that he '^ died with harness on his hackJ' The observation is 
there made eulogistically, but I dare say there are few reflecting men 
who will think the eulogy well bestowed. It may have been Mr. 



PHILADELPHIA. 273 

Girard's'fate to have "been involved in business and engrossed with 
the aiFairs of time up to the last, the all-important hour, when the 
" golden bowl was broken and the silver cord loosed/^ and his spirit 
took its flight to the Grod that gave it, to render an account of the 
deeds done in the body ; and the fact that so it was may not, and 
should not, render any one a whit less sensible to Mr. Girard's 
services to the great cause of education, or to the many claims he 
has upon the gratitude of the inhabitants of his adopted country. 
But it is to my mind a strange circumstance to chronicle, as one 
that tends to increase the halo that attaches to a man's name, that 
to the end of life he continued so much engrossed with the every- 
day business of a passing world — from which he was himself soon to 
pass away and " be no more for ever" — that he died with the harness 
of business on his back. Infinitely more to be desired would it have 
been for Mr. Girard, and would it be for all mankind, if, ere going 
hence, time were afforded, and were taken, to get quit of the " har- 
ness,'^ and to consider the destiny of the unclothed spirit without 
distraction, and in the light of the future. This, however, is a 
digression. 

By his will, made in 1830, and after leaving sundry very splendid 
legacies and special bequests, Mr. Girard, after narrating that he had 
" been for a long time impressed with the importance of educating 
the poor, and of placing them, by the early cultivation of their minds 
and the development of their moral principles, above the many temp- 
tations to which through poverty and ignorance they are exposed j'' 
and that he was ^^ particularly desirous to provide, for such a number 
of poor male white children as can be trained in one institution, a 
better education, as well as a more comfortable maintenance, than 
they usually receive from the application of the public funds," be- 
queathed the entire residue of his princely estates to the mayor, 
aldermen, and citizens of Philadelphia, directing them, with two 
millions of dollars out of said residue, to erect and furnish an institu- 
tion or permanent college, with suitable out-buildings j and with 
instructions, after " the college and appurtenances shall have been 
constructed and furnished," to apply ^'the income, issue, and profits 
of so much of said two millions of dollars as shall remain unexpended, 
in maintaining the college according to the testator's directions." 
By another section of the will, the free remainder of the residue of 
the estate is likewise bequeathed to form a permanent fund for 
certain expressed purposes, among which is " the further improve- 
ment and maintenance of the aforesaid college." Minute directions 
are given in the will regarding the male white orphans to be admitted 
into the institution — priority of claim being dependent on the locality 
of birth, in the order of (1) Philadelphia, (2) other parts of Penn- 
sylvania, (3) New York, and (4) New Orleans ; and also particular 



274 PHILADELPHIA. 

and minute instructions are set forth, regarding the nature and style 
of the building or erection contemplated by the testator as the college 
to be built. As regards the latter, the general direction is, that in 
erecting it the trustees are to "avoid needless ornament, and to 
attend chiefly to the strength, convenience, and neatness of the 
whole/' It would require, I fear, considerable liberality and latitude 
of construction, to say that the building actually reared is in accord- 
ance either with the letter or the spirit of the instructions last quoted. 
The amount expended for building the college, (which, begun in 
May, 1833, was not completed till 13th November, 1847) was 
1,933,878 dollars, (nearly £390,000 sterling;) so that there was 
very little of residue of the 2,000,000 of dollars to be applied in 
terms of the will. 

It appears from the will (which also judiciously provides that the 
boys are to wear no distinctive dress) that Mr. Girard contemplated 
ajffording accommodation and education for at least three hundred 
orphan boys, as he directs that " the building shall be sufficiently 
spacious for the residence and accommodation of at least three hun- 
dred scholars, and the requisite teachers and other persons ne- 
cessary in such an institution.''^ "When I visited it, about eighteen 
months after the completion of the building, the number of pupils 
enrolled was about one hundred. On looking over a list of them, 
I was somewhat struck with the number of names of German 
origin. 

Such is a general account of the nature and objects of the insti- 
tution called Girard College, Philadelphia, of which the traveller 
will hear much among those who take a deep interest in the cause 
of education, (and it is simple justice to say that this party is a 
very numerous, and a very powerful and operative one, in the Unit- 
ed States of America,) in the city itself, as well as in other parts of 
the Union. The mention of it will, in general, be either highly 
laudatory, or very much the reverse, just in accordance with the 
views of the speaker or of the society, on the much agitated question 
of the propriety or impropriety of separating or associating secular 
and religious instruction. But the sketch itself would not be com- 
plete were I not to notice another peculiarity of Mr. Girard' s will, 
the reason of which will best explain the cause of the difference of 
opinion to which I have thus alluded. My attention was somewhat 
rudely drawn to the peculiarity referred to, from finding that the 
word " Reverend" on the card of a compagnon de voyage, was suffi- 
cient to exclude him from being permitted to accompany me on a 
visit to the college. No clergyman of any denomination can get 
within the walls. By Mr. Girard' s will it is provided, — " Secondly, 
I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minister, of 
any sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty 



PHILADELPHIA. 275 

whatever in the said college, nor shall any parson ever be admitted 
for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appropriated to 
the said college/^ There can be no mistake about the sweeping 
nature of this exclusion, but it is only fair to say that Mr. Girard 
adds immediately — " In making this restriction, I do not mean to 
cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatever; but, as there 
is such a multitude of sects, and such a diversity of opinion amongst 
them, I desire to keep the tender minds of the orphans who are to 
derive advantage from this bequest free from the excitement which 
clashing doctrines and sectarian controversy are so apt to produce. 
My desire is that all the instructors and teachers in the college shall 
take pains to instil into the minds of the scholars the purest princi- 
ples of morality; so that, on their entrance into active life, they 
may, from inclination and habit, evince benevolence towards their 
fellow creatures, and a love of truth, sobriety, and industry, adopt- 
ing, at the same time, such religious tenets as their matured reason 
may enable them to prefer." 

That such an exclusion, adopted and vindicated on such views, and 
when taken in connexion with the great nation al^institute of which 
their author was the founder, should have excited some attention, 
and led to much discussion, is only what was natural, and what might 
have been predicted. And it is also, perhaps, only what was to be 
expected, that, in the controversy they elicited, the real intentions of 
the benevolent testator have been as much understated on the one 
side as overstated on the other. At all events, so it is. Those 
among what may be termed the religious classes, who defend the 
before-quoted provisions of Mr. Girard's will, affirm that it was any- 
thing but his wish or intention to exclude religion — the religion of 
the Bible and Christianity — from its proper and prominent place in 
the curriculum of education, (and certainly the practice in the insti- 
tution favours this view;) and that his intention merely was to pro- 
tect the educational establishment he had left behind him from all 
chance of being made an arena for discussing the conflicting tenets 
of mere sectarians and controversialists, who, with little of real reli- 
gion to recommend them, are fond of parading their dogmas on all 
points of an ecclesiastical nature. Y/hile those on the other hand 
among the same classes, who unqualifiedly condemn Mr. Girard, 
both for the exclusion and the reason assigned in defence of it, as 
unqualifiedly maintain that the spirit, if not the letter, of his will, 
is to exclude religion altogether from his estimate of that education 
which was in his opinion to fit the recipients of his bounty, " on 
their entrance into active life, from inclination and habit, to prac- 
tise benevolence towards their fellow creatures, and a love of truth, 
sobriety, and industry." 



276 PHILADELPHIA. 

As usual, the trutli will be found to lie somewhere between the 
two extremes. On the one hand, there is nothing certainly in 
Mr. Girard's will to lead necessarily to the conclusion that he meant 
to exclude the Bible, and the religion of the Bible, from the curri- 
culum of education which he contemplated his orphans receiving. 
On the contrary, it might be reasoned that his expressing it to be 
his desire, that the education given should be such as would instil 
into the minds of the scholars the purest principles of morality ^ 
amounted to a recognition of the Scriptures as a text-book — inas- 
much as it is the testimony even of infidels, that nowhere are there 
to be found nobler principles of morality inculcated on motives so 
disinterested or so lofty. And the practice of the institution, both 
as to the use of the Bible and the use of prayers, seems to corrobo- 
rate this view of the matter. 

But there is surely much to be said on the other side of the ques- 
tion, and with greater effect. If Mr. Girard's will permits the use 
of the Bible as a text-book, it permits also its utter exclusion. It 
repudiates altogether the principle of the Divine injunction, commu- 
nicated to his chosen people through the instrumentality of the He- 
brew lawgiver, which immediately follows the covenant made in 
Horeb, and the enumeration of the precepts of the moral law, as 
there given, and which is in these words — " Thou shalt teach them 
diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sit- 
test in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when 
thou liest down, and when thou risest up." 

Again, if the provision in question admits of the charitable con- 
struction, that its author meant not to question the necessity of an 
early acquaintance with the religion of the Bible, or even to deny 
that there was such a unity of doctrinal faith and of agreement, in 
all great and essential points, among the truly evangelical churches, 
as permitted the teaching of Christianity, and of the theology of 
Christianity, as part of the curriculum of education, without its 
necessarily involving mere sectarianism; yet certainly the con- 
struction is only permissible and not imperative. Nay, there is 
much in the words used to discountenance it. The purest princi- 
ples of morality are best taught in the revealed word of God. The 
best way of imparting habits of benevolence, truth, sobriety, and 
industry, is to inculcate from early life the pure precepts of that 
gospel which declares the law to be, to love God with all our heart, 
and our neighbour as ourselves. And, moreover, Mr. Girard's 
theory labours under this obvious and important imperfection, that, 
while it contemplates the formation of religious tenets only after 
the party shall have arrived at mature reason, it fails either to 
provide for those who die ere that undefined and undefinable period 



PHILADELPHIA. 277 

of life is arrived at, or to take advantage of the flexibility and im- 
pressibility of the youthful mind to lead it in paths, or to impress 
it with ideas, that have a religious direction and tendency. 

I have been induced to make these remarks on this somewhat 
singular feature of Mr. Grirard's will, because of the great amount 
of controversy which the subject seemed to excite among a certain 
class in America, and also because I have heard it commented on, 
even by Americans, in this country, in such a way as was calcu- 
lated to give an unjust, because too unfavourable a view of it. 
That clergymen should not like either the exclusion, or the grounds 
of it, is natural enough ; and, apart from all religious considera- 
tions, I am free to confess that I so much prefer the moderate in- 
troduction of men of clerical calling into secular affairs, to their 
total exclusion therefrom, that I would rather choose that two or 
three of different persuasions had formed members of the board of 
direction of Grirard College, than that they had been each and all 
of them totally excluded. But the exclusion of ecclesiastics does 
not necessarily amount to the exclusion of religion. Neither does 
the expression^of a resolution that the objects of his bounty should 
be kept free from the contamination of sectarian controversy, on 
the subject of religion, extend to a resolution to extrude Christian 
theology from the curriculum, or the Bible from the school-room ; 
and therefore do I conclude as I set out, by expressing it to be my 
opinion, that the truth as regards this vexed question of the infidel 
tendency of Mr. Grirard^ s bequest, lies between the extremes of the 
parties by whom he is lauded and condemned. 

There is another and a minor peculiarity in Mr. Girard's bequest, 
in the indifference he shows towards the claims of the classical 
literature of Grreece and of Kome. While he makes the tuition of 
the French and Spanish languages imperative, he says, in a pa- 
renthesis, of the tongues in which Homer and Virgil sang, and 
Demosthenes and Cicero spoke, '■^ I do not forbid, but I do not 
recommend, the Grreek and Latin languages.'' 

"Whether, in other respects, the Grirard College, as at present 
constituted, in terms of the will, is destined to produce the bene- 
ficial effects its benevolent author intended, and his sanguine ad- 
mirers expect, is another and a different question. On expressing 
to an intelligent friend in Philadelphia, who takes a deep interest 
in the cause of education generally, and of this educational insti- 
tute in particular, my idea that there was an opinion gathering 
strength in my native country of Scotland, that this class of insti- 
tutions had not been so very successful in producing even the pro- 
portion of well-educated men that might have been anticipated, and 
that the fact that they had been so was to be ascribed to the sepa- 
ration of the boys from the general community, the severance of 

24 



278 BALTIMORE. 

everything like domestic ties, and consequently the somewhat 
monkish feelings of seclusion formed in the course of education, I 
observed that there was on his lips a smile of incredulity, as per- 
ceptible as politeness would permit it to be, and I accordingly went 
no farther into the argument. Time, however, will show whether 
Mr. G-irard's benevolent intentions are to be realized ; meanwhile, 
it is only a fitting tribute to pay to his memory to say, that the 
idea and its realization reflect honour on his name, prove him to 
have been in heart a philanthropist, and entitle him to be regarded 
as among the benefactors of the human race. 

As from New York to Philadelphia, so from Philadelphia to 
Baltimore, there are two routes of travel, the one along the Dela- 
ware to Newcastle, thence by railway to French Town, (on Elk 
river,) through Elk river and Chesapeake Bay, past the mouth of 
the Susquehanna, and up the river Patapsco to Baltimore ; the 
other direct by the Wilmington and Baltimore railway, which 
crosses the Susquehanna. There is little ground for choice between 
the two, though perhaps the steamboat route is the one which will 
afford a stranger the greatest gratification, particularly as it affords 
an opportunity for seeing the entrance to the harbour of Baltimore, 
which is very fine. 

BALTIMORE. 

The visitor, for the first time, cannot fail to be much and agree- 
ably struck with the position and appearance of the town of Balti- 
more. As is generally known, the territory forming the state of 
Maryland, of which Baltimore is the capital, was so named in honour 
of the Queen of England, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. 
of France, and wife of Charles I. of England. The district was 
constituted a palatinate under a charter granted to Lord Baltimore, 
(from whom, of course, the town derives its name,) and was first 
colonised in 1633 by about two hundred English emigrants. At 
present the state of Maryland contains about half a million, and the 
town about one hundred and fifty thousand, inhabitants. The latter 
stands imposingly on a rising ground on the bank of the river Pa- 
tapsco, not many miles from the head of Chesapeake Bay ; and 
whether I recall its position, its public buildings, the general cleanly 
appearance of its streets, or the many fair faces and graceful forms 
I was privileged to see during my brief stay in it, Baltimore rises 
to my recollection with a very favourable impression. Unquestion- 
ably the town of Baltimore is finely situated, and the ladies of Bal- 
timore are very beautiful. The public buildings and other erections 
visited by me were — (1) the Boman Catholic Cathedral, a large 
granite building in the Ionic style, containing two good paintings of 



BALTIMORE. 279 

royal gift — one the Descent from the Cross, by Puelin Gruelin^ pre- 
sented to the cathedral by Louis XYL, of France, and the other 
representing St. Louis burying his officers and soldiers who were 
slain before Tunis, presented by Charles X., likewise also of France j 
and containing also the largest organ in the United States — -an organ 
which has six thousand stops and fifty-six pipes : (2) the Merchants' 
Exchange, of which the colonnades at the extremities struck me as 
being in good taste : (3) the Baltimore Museum : (4) the Battle 
Monument, erected in honour of the men who fell in defence of 
Baltimore in 1814, which appeared to me a work too elaborate in 
its design, wanting in simplicity, and displaying but little taste : 
and (5) the monument erected by the State to the memory of the 
illustrious Washington. But, following the example I have already 
set myself, it is not my intention to say more than has been already 
done of any of them except the last; and truly the Washington 
monument of Baltimore deserves a special consideration. 

From the number of monuments it contains, Baltimore has been 
called the Monumental City, and, in so far as America at least is 
concerned, it would be entitled to the distinction were it only because 
it contains this noble structure to the greatest of America's sons 
and statesmen. The monument itself, together with the colossal 
statue on the summit of it, is composed of white marble. It stands 
on an eminence, and is therefore well exposed to view in every 
direction, and it consists of a square base surmounted by a round 
column of twenty feet in diameter. The base is fifty feet square by 
twenty-four feet high, and the column (statue included) is one hun- 
dred and eighty feet in height. Appropriate and neat short inscrip- 
tions, descriptive of the principal incidents in Washington's eventful 
life, are inscribed on the sides of the basement. The column is 
hollow, and there is a stair inside, by means of which the visitor 
may ascend to the summit, and obtain by so doing a superb view of 
Baltimore and its environs. Altogether the monument to Washing- 
ton, at Baltimore, is worthy of the state that reared it, and of the 
great man whose patriotic services it is designed to commemorate. 
I have a great veneration for the name of Washington 3 and sure I 
am that, were his principles more paramount in the republic of his 
creation, there would not be so large a display of that intensely self- 
ish democratic feeling of which European travellers often, and it is 
to be feared ofttimes justly, complain. Washington was a republican, 
but he was no democrat. Indeed, few men of eminence have ex- 
pressed themselves more strongly on the dangers of democracy. 

Similar circumstances produce similar results, and human nature, 
amidst all its varieties, is ever the same. Thus it is that the Wash- 
ington monument of Baltimore, like the better known London 
Monument of the modern Babylon, has found favour as a place 



280 - WASHINGTON. 

whence to accomplish their mad desires, or end their worldly sorrows, 
by the insane and the wretched. Of late years, several instances 
have occurred of persons throwing themselves from the top of the 
Washington Monument at Baltimore. In the majority of instances, 
these victims of madness or of misery have been females. 

The distance from Baltimore to Washington, the inadequate capi- 
tal of the United States of America, is only forty miles, and it is 
now traversed by a railroad. On the occasion when I travelled it, 
the journey occupied three hours; but nearly one-third of that time 
was lost, through the circumstance of the tender carriage attached 
to the steam-engine having gone off the rails, dragging the two suc- 
ceeding passenger carriages along with it. The passengers made a 
very narrow escape ; for, moderate as the speed was, it is little less 
than miraculous that none of the carriages were overturned. As it 
was, no personal injury was sustained ; and the only real consequence 
was, our arriving somewhat later than we were expected at the 
metropolitan city of 

WASHINGTON, 

the capital of the United States of America. And how unlike a 
capital city ! Previous descriptions had prepared me for finding 
Washington anything but a fine town. Mr. Dickens^ humorous 
portraiture of it, as '' a city of magnificent intentions,'' had amused 
me, and I thought I was somewhat prepared for the scene itself. 
But the preparation was insufficient : after all, I was disappointed 
— exceedingly disappointed. It was not that Washington was 
smaller than I expected : on the contrary, it covered more ground 
than my preconception had led me to expect. It was not that the 
public buildings were inferior to what I had calculated on : on the 
contrary, they were finer — the noble Capitol infinitely finer — than I 
had visioned in my mind's eye. Indeed, it is difficult to say exactly 
why I was so disappointed at the first sight of the city of Washing- 
ton. Describing my feelings as graphically as I can, I would say it 
was at the general village-like appearance of the whole place. And 
yet even this remark requires much qualification. It was like a 
large village, and yet it was not. It was like a village in the wide- 
ness of its road-like badly-paved streets, and in the contrariety in 
the styles of the different buildings of which it was composed. But 
it was very unlike a village, as well in the size and stateliness of 
most of tlaese buildings, as in the style of the persons and vehicles 
which were moving along its avenues; and assuredly, when, from 
whatever point of view, the eye rested on the stately Capitol, the 
village idea received a check which melted it into thin air. 

But it is only when attention is confined to Washington as a 



WASHINGTON. - 281 

town, that disappointment is, or can be, fairly felt ; and after all, 
is there not something unreasonable, as well as unphilosophical, in 
the idea which necessarily connects a seat of government with a 
large city ? That capitals are generally large towns is very true, 
and thus natural it is that, when proceeding to visit the capital of 
a great nation, like the United States of America, the mind is 
made up for finding it an extensive, as well as an important place. 
But is it necessary, or even expedient, that largeness of extent, or 
of population, should be one of its characteristics ? and is it not 
simply because, in this respect, Washington disappoints expecta- 
tions raised on insufficient bases, that one feels the dissatisfaction 
with its general appearance which has been already described ? In 
1800, when Washington was made the seat of the United States' 
Government, there were several large cities in the American 
Union, any of which might have been selected for capital honours. 
The town of Baltimore itself is distant not more than forty miles 
from the site selected ; but the approvers of Washington as a cen- 
tral and separate, though new point, whence to issue the acts of 
national legislation, made choice of none of these large towns; 
and the opinions of such men as Washington, Madison, and Lee, 
particularly on such a question, must surely be admitted to out- 
weigh all other evidence, and be considered decisive as to the fit- 
ness of the spot, (city or no city,) for the end to which it was 
intended. Moreover, it was in part the fear of dangers incidental 
to large towns that influenced many of the friends of the new site. 
In 1783, the United States' Congress were grossly insulted by a 
mutinous and riotous mob at Philadelphia, which the state autho- 
rities and forces were unable to quell ; and were compelled, for the 
prosecution of their deliberations, to adjourn to the halls of the 
college at Princetown. This circumstance must have powerfully 
impressed the then American statesmen with a sense of the danger 
to their institutions which might arise from the dominant influence 
of the mob, particularly in a country tending to democracy, and in 
which the national military force was but small. It must also have 
tended in no inconsiderable degree to facilitate the carrying, in 
1790, of the resolution under which the district of Columbia, on 
the banks of the Potomac, was laid off — surrendered by Maryland 
and Virginia — and ceded to the general government for the pur- 
poses of the Union. Originally this district was ten miles square, 
but it is now much smaller, in consequence of the portion of land 
ceded by the state of Virginia having been returned to that state 
again, by the wish, or with the consent, as I believe, of the inhabi- 
tants of the ceded portion, who found that the honour of belonging 
to the metropolitan district but ill compensated for having their 
local affairs and interests neglected, while their rulers were looking 

24- 



282 WASHINGTON. 

after the more commanding and pressing interests of the whole 
Union, and conducting the business of the general government. 

With the exception of the Capitol, the only public buildings in 
Washington which seemed to me likely to attract attention, from 
their possession of any amount of architectural beauty, are the 
President's house, (attractive not so much either on account of its 
size or beauty, but because it is the state residence of the head of 
the Republic,) the Patent Office, and the Treasury. The town man- 
sion of the President of the United States — the White House, as 
it is most frequently, and from its colour, called — is a plain neat 
building, not unlike the seat of a rich English country gentleman, 
beautifully situated on the banks of the river Potomac, and sur- 
rounded by indifferently kept grounds, extending to about twenty 
acres. The Patent Office is a handsome, extensive, but unfinished 
edifice with a Doric portico ; and the Treasury is a very striking as 
well as an exceedingly handsome erection, having a Glrecian front 
with a colonnade of about 460 feet in length. 

And now for a few sentences on the capital of the capital. In 
the opinion of many Americans, this erection is considered not 
merely the finest building in the United States of America, but 
not inferior to any senate-house in the world ; and although I can- 
not subscribe to so sweeping a eulogium — and it is impossible for 
any British subject to do so — I certainly do think, and unhesitat- 
ingly say, that the Capitol of Washington is a very imposing as 
well as a very beautiful piece of architecture. Covering as it does 
an area of an acre and a half, with a frontage (wings included) of 
852 feet, of the height (to the top of the dome) of 120 feet, and 
standing on a site of considerable elevation above the level of the 
surrounding country, the Capitol is a very magnificent object from 
whatever side it is viewed. And it returns the compliment ; for 
the finest and most perfect view, not only of the city of Washing- 
ton, but of the whole circumjacent country, is to be obtained from 
the dome of the Capitol. This view is really superb, and it is only 
from this view that one can get anything like a definite idea of the 
magnificent intentions of the aspiring Frenchman by whom the 
city of Washington was originally designed. Walking along the 
road-like streets, it is impossible to get any such graphic idea. 
They are not like streets : they are unlike, from the insufficiency 
of the paving. Indeed, with the exception of Pennsylvania 
Avenue, few of them are paved in any way. They are also unlike 
f i-om their excessive breadth. With roads which are too broad for 
streets, and too narrow for squares, there is a singular want of con- 
nexion among the streets and houses of the city of Washington. 

The interior of the Capitol is plain, but still in harmony with the 
nobility of the exterior. The Chamber of Representatives is a semi- 



WASHINGTON. 283 

circular room, spacious and loftj, and lighted from above ; and the 
Senate ChamlDer, on the opposite side of the building, is a somewhat 
smaller room of the same shape. Both are fine as well as imposing 
in their proportions, and both seem to me excellently adapted for the 
purposes to which they are devoted. In a different part of the build- 
ing is the library of Congress, a neat comfortable room of no great 
size, said to contain some thirty thousand volumes — a handsome 
number indeed, all circumstances considered, but scarcely worth 
being chronicled, and communicated as a distinction, when it is re- 
membered that there are nearly thirty libraries in Europe each con- 
taining fully a hundred thousand volumes, or more ; while the library 
of the British Museum at London, though only the fourth in Europe 
in point of extent, contains the extraordinary number of 435,000 
volumes. It is, however, not a bad sign of the intelligence of a na- 
tion to find them boasting of the extent of their libraries ; and, when 
in the United States, I have often heard what has been called Jona- 
than's national sin (a habit of boasting) developing itself in a much 
less defensible and a much more offensive way, though certainly not 
from the lips of any of the intelligent of America's sons. 

In the lower part of the building, and near the United States' 
Court Hall, my attention was much struck by what I find I have 
noted as the American School of Architecture. If the invention of 
an American, it may fairly be so called. The objects alluded to are 
several columns or pillars, fashioned to represent bundles of Indian 
corn stalks, and having capitals representing the grain partially strip- 
ped, ripe, and open. The effect is fine, and I should like much to 
see the design carried out in the erection of a building. 

The chief attraction of the interior of the Capitol of Washington, 
is the Rotunda, or entrance-hall, situated under the dome in the cen- 
tre of the building. This Kotunda is ninety-five feet in diameter as 
well as in height, and on the walls of it are six pictures of large size 
— twelve feet by eighteen. These large paintings severally represent 
The Declaration of Independence, The Surrender of Burgoyne, The 
Surrender of Cornwallis, Washington resigning his Commission, The 
Baptism of Pochahontas, and The Embarkation of the Pilgrim Fa- 
thers at Plymouth in England, in the little Mayflower. When I vi- 
sited the scene, there was also a likeness of the President, General 
Taylor, exhibited in this hall. Of the accuracy and excellence of 
this painting, not only as a picture but as a good likeness, I had an 
after as well as an excellent opportunity of judging. 

With reference to the second and third of the pictures thus enu- 
merated as ornamenting the Rotunda of the United States' Capitol, 
I may, as a British subject, be permitted to question the excellence 
of the taste which selected for such a purpose two scenes from one 
side of a war, that afforded so many incidents of a conflicting cha- 



284 WASHINGTON. 

racter. Looking to the fact that, in this very War of Independence, 
there were so many instances which might be made the subject of 
pictorial representation to the effect of exciting feelings of a different 
kind, and also to the fact that so large a party in Great Britain, in- 
cluding the best and most independent of British statesmen, espoused 
and advocated the cause of American Independence, even in the Brit- 
ish Senate itself, (a fact so well recognised in the States, that I find 
the following to be one of the printed questions put to the students 
in history in the common schools in Cincinnati, at the examination 
for the year ending 30th June 1848, " What British Statesman was 
conspicuous in espousing the cause of the colonies in Parliament V) 
more truthful as well as more tasteful embellishments might have 
been selected. But let not my American friends misunderstand me. 
I make no complaint of their commemorating, in every possible way, 
their struggle for independence, and the issue of it. That is not only 
natural, but noble ; and the well-known fact that the war which led 
to that issue was the most unpopular in Great Britain of any that 
the British Government ever engaged in, should enhance, instead of 
detracting from, the pleasure of the commemoration. What I alone 
complain of is, the selecting, for such national commemoration, indi- 
vidual scenes of personal humiliation out of the numberless incidents 
of a checkered warfare, conducted against British colonists by the 
British Government, contrary to the wishes of a large body (if not 
the majority) of the nation, and notwithstanding the opinions, the 
remonstrances, and the vaticinations of the illustrious and venerable 
Lord Chatham, and of a long list of British statesmen of world-re- 
nowned eminence. But having resolved so to commemorate the war 
in question, nothing can be said against the choice of the subjects, 
particularly by a nation whose places of public resort, and even the 
streets and squares of whose towns, are filled with mementos, in 
names, in paintings, and in memorials, commemorative of the many 
victories by land and by sea which go to make what has been so long 
considered the national laurels of England. Although the act of 
Burgoyne (in delivering up the force under his charge) was compelled 
by circumstances, and accompanied by a condition of safe conduct 
that entitle it to be regarded rather as a " capitulation" than as a 
'J surrender'', there can be no objection to the use of the latter term 
if its employment gratifies our American friends. Nor can it be 
objected that they should make choice of this event, and of the sub- 
sequent one of Lord Cornwallis's surrender of his army of six thou- 
sand men, to the combined forces of France and of America, in pre- 
ference to choosing a subject for representation from such scenes as 
the taking of New York, the battle of Germantown, the siege of 
Ticonderago, the battle of Briars Creek, or even the less decisive 
affair of Bunker's Hill; or, indeed^ any of the varied scenes of the 



WASHINGTON. 285 

unfortunate and unnatural contest in which the tide of success be- 
tween the Royalists and the Independents so often fluctuated. 

When upon the subject of the extent of the desire shown by some 
of our American brethren to over-estimate the doings and daring of 
their ancestors in the War of Independence, or to obtrude unnecessa- 
rily, and with but little taste, the topic in the presence of a British 
subject, I may be permitted to make a remark which has often oc- 
curred to me in reference to the American Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Few documents are so vaunted by our transatlantic brethren, 
and few documents deserve to be so lauded, if it be regarded simply 
as the crowning act of a nation's struggle for liberty. But viewed 
with reference to the contents of the document itself, I have said, 
and I do say, that it is very far from containing either an accurate or 
a dignified statement of the causes which led to the violent separa- 
tion of the American colonies from the parent state. In particular, 
it charges upon the King of G-reat Britain, as an individual, griev- 
ances and complaints, and a refusal to give redress, which the framer 
of the act himself knew well were the results of the doings, not 
of the king, but of the ministry. Not only so, the Declaration of 
American Independence charge the King of Great Britain with 
crimes and with conduct, with acts of cruelty and of perfidy, of which 
there is not even the shadow of a pretence for alleging him to have 
been guilty. In adhering to and supporting a ministry who persisted 
in carrying on a war with our then colonies, notwithstanding one of 
the most powerful and talented oppositions that any ministry ever 
had to encounter in the British senate, and even after that war had 
been shown to be unpopular, and distasteful to the great mass of the 
nation, George III. did undoubtedly act unwisely. But the act of 
carrying on the war was that of his ministers, not of himself: and 
the framer and approvers of the American Declaration themselves 
knew well, as statesmen, that in a constitutional country like Eng- 
land such was necessarily the fact. Why, then, was not the state- 
ment framed in accordance with the fact ? I fear the alone answer 
is, because, in the then state of the public mind, both in America 
and in Great Britain, it secured more sympathy to affect to represent 
the contest as invoked, caused, and consummated in the manner it 
had been, through the headstrong tyranny of a wayward and unfeel- 
ing despot. But George III. was no despot -, and, whatever his other 
faults or failings, cruelty and perfidy cannot with truth be classed 
among them. 

The matters and scenes above referred to, however, are now long 
bygone, with the generation in whose time they were transacted. 
The incidents connected with them have become matters of history, 
on which future generations will pass their verdict ) and whoever was 
to blame— either in the beginning, in the conduct, or in regard to the 



286 WASHINGTON. 

issue — the wise of both countries seem to be agreed in this, that it is 
fortunate^ both for the parent state and the severed colony, that the 
separation took place at the time, if not in the manner in which it did. 

In the immediate vicinity of the Capitol of Washington stands a 
gigantic statue to the memory of him who has given his name to the 
city. The inscription on this monument is dignified and simple. 
On the one side " First in war/^ on the other, " First in peace.'* 
The statute is colossal, and the attitude striking. Measures are like- 
wise now in progress for erecting in the capital a national testimonial, 
on a very extensive scale, to commemorate the services and virtues 
of this the greatest of the framers and defenders of the American 
confederation. 

A transition from the description of the capital of a nation, to the 
consideration of the form of government, is so natural, that explana- 
tion of motives for the introduction of the latter subject were unne- 
cessary, did not the obvious importance of the topic justify the men- 
tion of the fact, that the views to be now recorded are the results, 
not merely of impressions formed when in America, and from what I 
saw there, but of a study of the republican constitution of the United 
States, years before I put my foot on their shores. Before visiting 
the great republic, I enjoyed some acquaintance with the writings of 
its distinguished jurists. I had read myself into the belief that the 
constitution of the Federal Union of America ranked very high 
among the achievements of modern wisdom. A close inspection of 
the machinery in actual operation has not dispelled this opinion, 
although it has modified it on all points, and corrected it in some. 

When, in the year 1787, twelve years after their Declaration of 
Independence, the deputies of the then United States of America 
finally agreed to and subscribed the Deed of Constitution, a course 
was adventured on, and a form of government ratified, for which there 
was no favourable prestige in the history of the past. Confederated 
republics have never yet reached an old age of national existence. 
Not to occupy time and space by more than a passing allusion to 
federal unions obscurely mentioned in the pages of more ancient his- 
tory, it suffices here to refer to that of the Grecian republics, whose early 
dissolution arose more from the corroding influences of internal jea- 
lousy, and from conflicting interests, than from the violent assaults 
of foreign aggression ] or to the confederation of the United Provinces 
of Holland in later days, which only found an end to domestic dis- 
sension by taking refuge in a monarchical form of government. 

It was not, therefore, in the light of the past that the fathers and 
framers of the American constitution could gather their hope of per- 
manency for their young republic. They adhered, however, to their 
resolution to form a united confederation ; and prejudice itself cannot 
deny that nobly was that resolve carried into execution. Nay more. 



UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION. 287 

if ever a republican form of government was to succeed, it was surely 
in such circumstances as were here combined. Never, in the annals 
of the world, was the experiment made under happier auspices, or 
with brighter and better founded hopes. One solitary cloud dimmed 
the azure brightness of the horizon of the young republic. The ex- 
istence of slavery, in about one moiety of the States, was the only 
source whence there could be dread of danger to the constitution ; 
and, " small as a man's hand" as that cloud was, it could only be the 
far-seeing who could from it derive the presentiment, that something 
might yet occur to raise a conflict of interests and of views sufficient 
to put an end to the close union and entire harmony that, in 1787, 
bound together the confederated states. Otherwise, all bade fair for 
future domestic peace and weal. The authors of the constitutional 
articles were men of cool heads and patriot hearts ; and the tender 
republic was to be tried on a clear stage, in a new world, and afar 
from those conflicting elements of kingly or of oligarchical growth, 
which might have impeded its development had the formation of a 
confederated republic been attempted in any part of Europe. Nay 
more — the success of the experiment has, up to the present hour, 
justified the anticipations of the authors of the American constitu-' 
tion ; and I entertain a strong opinion that, if from any source serious 
danger menaces the confederacy of the United States, and threatens 
to disturb its integrity, this fact arises more from the eff'ect of inroads 
which have from time to time been made on the principles of the 
constitution, than from any defect inherent in that document itself. 
I have said that, from a somewhat early period of my life, I had been 
a student of the constitution of the United States, and that, although 
not an advocate for republican forms of government in the abstract, 
I had, ere I visited the Union, formed a high opinion of its wisdom. 
Indeed, it would be difficult to frame a more complete form of re- 
publican government than that of the American Federal Union ; or 
to point out a case of difficulty which is not comprehended, and 
provided for, in some part or other of the seven articles of the con- 
stitution of the United States, or of the amendments thereon. In 
republican theory, it is perfect. But has it been as perfect in its 
operation or execution ? It certainly has not ; and the reason it has 
not been so is, in the opinion of the writer, to be found, not in any 
defects in the constitution itself, but in the manner in which its work- 
ing has been interfered with by conflicting claims, set up by indi- 
vidual states, on the general plea and principle that, in joining the 
Union, they had reserved their independency. In particular, the 
nullification doctrine strangely but ably advocated by Mr. Calhoun, 
as the organ and mouthpiece of the Southern States, and, since his 
declaration of it, resorted to on every occasion of a difference between 
the general government and an individual state — ofttimes for the 



288 UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION. 

most unwortliy of party purposes — strikes at the very vitals of the 
constitution of the United States of America. By that doctrine it is 
maintained that, when the federal government, sitting in Congress, 
shall pass a law which, in the opinion of any individual state, exceeds 
the powers conferred by the constitution, it is the province, and 
within the power, of the legislature of that state to stay the progress 
of the law, by declaring it to be of no effect — by nullifying its opera- 
tion within such state's own particular territories. It is true that 
the existence of this alleged state right has never been formally re- 
cognised; indeed, to some extent it has been repudiated by the gene- 
ral government. One of the most brilliant efforts of the truly great 
Webster has been devoted to illustrating its incompatibility with the 
very existence of the general government. But the snake is scotched, 
not killed. From time to time it is constantly recurring and rearing 
up its head, impeding the action of the legislature, and destroying 
the supremacy of the constitution. Great Britain treated with the 
United States' Government relative to the amicable settlement of a 
question of boundary, of little value to the Republic, and still less 
to England. A reference of the dispute was made between the two 
high contracting parties. But the negotiations were almost marred, 
and the two countries nearly involved in warfare about some miles 
of mountain land, because of the interposition of a third party or 
negotiant in the independent state of Maine ! Again, the federal 
government of the United States established a tariff; but the terms 
of it pleased not the State of South Carolina, and that independent 
member of the ill-cemented body politic disapproved of, and conse- 
quently nullified the law. The consequence was an alteration of the 
general tariff, to conciliate one recusant or refractory state, and (for 
at the time it seemed a probable thing, from the attitude assumed by 
the powerful State of South Carolina) prevent the possibility of an 
internecine war. Instances to the same effect might be multiplied, 
but these two suffice to illustrate the general position which is at 
present the alone object in view. 

But it is no defect in the ^^ constitution of the United States" 
that gives rise to these and to other difficulties in its practical 
working. All the consideration I can give the subject leads to the 
conclusion that, apart from the general question of slavery, which 
is one per se, the only source of embarrassment is, that while, by 
the letter of the constitution, sufficient powers have been conferred 
on the general government, that spirit of party which is the bane 
of any country, and especially of America — in which there is 
always so numerous an army of placemen, hangers-on, and expect- 
ants — has led to the putting forth, on the part of individual states, 
of claims to a degree of '^ independence '^ and ^^ reserved right,'' 
w^hich is absolutely incompatible with the full, free exercise of the 



UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION. 289 

powers conferred by the constitution upon the central government. 
To give power to arrange all matters of ^^ duties, imposts, and ex- 
cises/' is of no great use, provided those to be most affected by 
their operations are to be entitled to declare the arrangements null 
after they have been made. To be authorized to make treaties, 
and ^^ regulate commerce with foreign nations,^' is of little avail, 
if the individual member of the confederation whose territory may 
be most affected by the treaty or regulation is entitled to interpose 
its veto, or equally effective refusal of accession or acquiescence. 
And authority ^^ to establish post-offices, and make post-roads,^' is 
but an empty permission, if the general government are not per- 
mitted to assess for the formation and maintenance of such 
utilities, save under the risk of having the law nullified by some 
individual state, which may be unwilling to bear its share of the 
expense. 

In a word, it may be too much to say that the doctrine of nullifi- 
cation and the democratic theory of reserved state rights is destruc- 
tive of the American union ; but it is certainly not too much to 
affirm that they contain elements of dissension ; and that, carried to 
their legitimate extent, they may prove utterly inconsistent with all 
vigour of government. A general governing power, fettered by 
such a restrictive principle, can scarcely expect to continue " power- 
ful at home and respected abroad." That these effects have not 
been more clearly manifested in the past history of the great repub- 
lic of America, I attribute to these causes — that, wedded together 
in love and mutual forbearance by the trying ordeal of the Kevolu- 
tionary War, the original states of the confederation were long ere 
they permitted the agitation of any question that would disturb their 
consociation or repose ; that it has been the good destiny of the 
United States to have had at the head of their affairs, with but few 
exceptions, men of patriotic hearts, sound heads, and tried business 
habits ; and that, whenever conflict has been likely to arise between 
the general government and a refractory state, some judicious means 
have been found for reconciling the recusants, or evading the diffi- 
culty without bringing the question to a decisive issue or arbitrament. 
Even while I write, the monster republic is assailed with a greater 
difficulty, and a stronger chance of disunion, than it has had to en- 
counter in any of the darkest years of its bypast history; and sure 
am I that there is no one with a heart to feel, and a capacity to 
understand, who fails to admire the efforts of American statesmen 
of all creeds and classes to allay the storm, and to find out, if they 
can, some standing ground of honest and honourable compromise 
and mutual concession. 

But the preceding observations on the constitution of the United 
States are not intended to convey the impression that, in the wri- 

25 



290 UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION. 

ter's opinion, the American Republic is in imminent danger of 
being dismembered and disunited. No doubt the day of separation 
may come — anticipating the future destinies of the land of " stars 
and stripes ^^ by the analogies of the past, it would seem almost a 
certainty that the time when it will be divided must arrive. Look- 
ing to the already vast extent of the United States' territory, and 
to the great additions lately made thereto, the conclusion is scarcely 
to be resisted that, at some period or other, it will form the abode 
of more than one of the nations of the earth. Reflecting on the 
entire separation and severance of the pecuniary interests, and the 
difference in the personal habits of the northern from those of the 
southern states, it would seem a strange event that such materials 
could be permanently wedded into an enduring entireness ; and, 
considering the firm stand assumed by the respective champions of 
the two great parties that now contend for dominance, it would 
seem hopeless to expect that the day of disunion among the hetero- 
geneous materials comprised within the great union of North 
America can be indefinitely postponed. 

But, despite these admissions, I am not one of those who anti- 
cipate an early secession of one part of the confederacy from the 
other — nay more, (and while I by no means think that a peaceful 
separation would materially interfere with the rapid advancement, 
either of the north or of the south, of the east or of the far west, 
or lead to those anarchical results generally predicated as likely to 
follow the dismemberment of the American confederation,) I would, 
were I an American as I am a Briton, regard a severance of the 
Federative Union, albeit an amicable or at least a peaceful one, as 
the greatest calamity that could possibly befall my great and rising 
country. I cannot conceive that there is an American to be found 
who is not more or less imbued with this feeling. What heart does 
not respond to the thrilling sentiments beautifully expressed by 
Mr. Webster, when he says, " Who is there among us that, if he 
should find himself on any spot of the earth where human beings 
exist, and where the existence of other nations is known, would 
not be proud to say, ' 1 am an American, I am a countryman of 
Washington, I am a citizen of that republic which, although it has 
suddenly sprung up, yet there are none on the globe who have ears 
to hear and have not heard of it, who know anything and yet do 
not know of its existence and its glory.' And, gentlemen,'' adds 
he, " let me reverse the picture ; let me ask who is there among 
us that, if he were to be found to-morrow in one of the civilised 
countries of Europe, and was there to learn that this goodly form 
of government had been overthrown — that the United States were 
no longer united, that a death-blow had been struck upon the bond 
of union, that they themselves had destroyed their chief good and 



UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION. 291 

their chief honour — who is there whose heart would not sink within 
him ? Who is there who would not cover his face for very shame V 
There will be no doubt about the beauty of the passage I have 
thus quoted, and there can be as little doubt of its truth. Through- 
out this record of my impressions, I have endeavoured to avoid 
saying anything as to the peculiarities of mind and manners exhi- 
bited by the Americans as a people — not deeming the time spent 
by me among them sufficient to justify prominent allusions to such 
matters. But I have already elsewhere remarked, that there are 
few privileges an American citizen views with such complaceny, as 
his membership of the Union — the privilege of calling himself a 
citizen of the American confederacy. This fact lies too much on 
the surface to escape the notice of the most casual observer. The 
Englishman, the Scotchman, or the Irishman have each their sepa- 
rate subject of glorification connected with their several lands of 
the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock, even while they unite in 
the anthem of " Rule Britannia.^' But the national boast of the 
genuine American is, not that he belongs to New York, Massachu- 
setts, Kentucky, or Ohio ; it is that he is an American — a citizen 
of the United States' confederation — a native of the country which 
gave birth and fame to Washington, and a denizen of that land 
whose standard is " the star-spangled banner." This feeling is 
the chord so beautifully and effectively touched by Mr. Webster ; 
it is one very generally prevalent throughout the United States, 
and the extent to which it prevails is one of the causes to which 
I look for a greater permanency to the Federal Union of America 
than has been by some thought probable. Even slavery itself — 
even the restlessness of the North under this blot on the national 
escutcheon, and its anxiety to wipe it off, conflicting with the de- 
termination of the South to stand by and to support it — will not 
suffice to countervail against the principle to which I have referred. 
In the last war with Grreat Britain, the States stood together at a 
time when their union was most severely tried, through the fact of 
the war being adverse to the most obvious interests of at least one 
section of the confederation ; and, dark as is the cloud which at 
present menaces the integrity of the American Union, I do not 
doubt but that, under the auspices of such men as Clay and Web- 
ster, some measure of compromise and conciliation will yet be 
found, consistent alike with the principles of the North, the honour 
of the South, and the safety of both. No doubt, this question of 
slavery is the difficulty of the American Union. It is the " Irish 
question'^ of the American Legislature. Nay, more, it has diffi- 
culties connected with it, or arising from it, separate and indepen- 
dent of the question of the integrity of the central power, which 
has been already shortly considered. The very manner in which 



292 UNITED STATES' CONSTITUTION. 

SO very keen a discussion upon the American slave question has 
been grafted on the consideration of a motion for the admission of 
California as a member of the Republican Union^ proves how im- 
portant and how intense the feeling which pervades the States upon 
this subject undoubtedly is. California having herself resolved on 
a constitution which excluded slavery, there was no absolute ne- 
cessity for mixing up the question of her admission into the family 
of states with the general topic which divides the North from the 
South. It might be natural, but it was not necessary so to do. It 
might have been avoided, had the South and its Congressional 
leaders so willed. If there be, in the form of California's applica- 
tion to be admitted to the privileges of brotherhood, anything irre- 
gular and at variance with the constitution (as Mr. Calhoun alleges,) 
it was easy to have discussed the motion or resolution on that 
ground alone ; and precedents are to be found in the admission of 
earlier states of the confederation, which might have been held 
authoritative on the subject. But that the fact was not so, and that 
the application of the American El Dorado, or golden region, has 
been made the signal for sounding the tocsin on the question of 
slavery throughout the Union, powerfully and eloquently evidences 
the strength of the feelings entertained upon the subject, by the 
two great parties who divide between them the influence of the 
confederation. That such has been the case is to be attributed 
mainly to the South, and, in part at least, it is charged against 
them as a fault. I have elsewhere expressed a sympathy with the 
position in which the inhabitants of the Southern States (many of 
them privately and on principle opposed to slavery,) feel themselves 
to be placed. But, at the same time, they are chiefly accountable 
for the excitement which at present agitates the Union ; and, inas- 
much as the question which has created it is one which seems to 
have been at present raised without adequate cause or imperious 
necessity, the originating of it may be regarded as a political mis- 
take, and consequently a fault. 

But whatever its destinies for the future, prejudice itself cannot 
deny that the past history of the American Federal Union has been 
one of scarcely paralleled prosperity. For above sixty years it has 
been found compatible with, if not conducive to, the most rapid ad- 
vancement in wealth and in population that was ever recorded in the 
historic annals of any people. Since its constitution was subscribed 
by the Deputies in 1787, the Republic of North America has acted 
with a closeness of union, and a rapidity of increase, which contrasts 
most strikingly with the internal wars and back-going tendencies 
which have been at work to retard the advancement of the numerous 
republics to be seen in the southern portion of the same great con- 
tinent. That such has been the good destiny of the North American 



UNITED STATES' CONSTITUUION. 293 

Union is, I apprehend, mainly to be attributed to the wisdom of the 
articles of its constitution of 1787, and to the strength and solidity 
of the central power thereby created. Of that constitution it was 
remarked by Franklin, at the time he signed it, '' I consent to this 
constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure 
it is not the best;'' and by Washington himself, the chairman of the 
Convention, that, ^' In the aggregate, it is the best constitution that 
can be obtained at this epoch/' The words in which these great men 
thus couched their eulogy of the production they were themselves 
mainly instrumental in fashioning, may seem to argue something 
like moderate expections of well-working and permanency. It is 
therefore all the more satisfactory to know that, tested by the expe- 
rience of nearly two generations of men, the federal constitution thus 
ushered into the world — after a few months' sederunt of the deputies 
who formed it — has been, if not productive of, at least entirely con- 
sistent with, an unusually large amount of national prosperity and 
advancement in all that adorns or dignifies a national career. 

With these few observations on the sources whence alone danger 
may be anticipated to the integrity of the constitution of the United 
States, I again declare myself an admirer of that constitution ; and 
it is because I am so, and that I desire its stability and continuance, 
that I bring my notes upon it to a termination, by remarking, by 
way of moral — That he who would conserve the permanency of the 
federal union of the American States, must strengthen the hands of 
the General Grovernment. For reasons greatly too numerous to permit 
of their consideration being adventured on here, there are no grounds 
for fear of the central power proving too strong for that of the indi- 
vidual states of which it is the keystone ; but there are at least some 
reasons for supposing that the centrifugal forces of the independent 
members of the body politic may prove too powerful for the centri- 
petal attraction which directs their energies towards a common centre. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

" But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, 
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, 
And roam along, the world's tired denizen." 

Btron. 
" May Government never degenerate into a mob, nor mobs grow strong enough to become 
governments."— Sam Slick's Toast. 

Leaving Washington, after an inspection of its environs sufficient 
to satisfy me of the fact that, although the site of the city is well 
chosen, the land by which it is surrounded is poor, and incapable of 
high cultivation, I returned to Baltimore, thence to Philadelphia^ 

25* 



294 NEW YORK. 

and thence to New York, adopting, as I have ah'eady said, a return 
route from Philadelphia different from the one I had taken in my 
way up to the capital. I have however already said, regarding both 
the " monumental " and the " Quaker " city, all that I think likely 
to interest the general reader, and my return journey was not marked 
by any peculiar incidents, or by the sight of any particular novelty. 

The return to New York afforded me an opportunity of visiting 
such scenes in it as had been omitted (through want of invitation 
or suggestion) on the occasion of my first visit. Amongst these 
was the place of resort known to the New York populace under 
the cognomen of ^Hhe Castle Grarden," a place of public enter- 
tainment erected on a mole, and connected with the ^^ Battery " by 
a bridge. This mole was formerly occupied as a fortress, to aid 
in protecting the harbour ; but it is now made use of as a place of 
amusement ) the area of it being chiefly occupied as the site of a 
great amphitheatre, capable, the guide-books say, of containing 
ten thousand persons, and certainly calculated to give sitting or 
standing room to a multitude little short of that number. At- 
tracted thither by the announcement of an Oratorio, and the 
seductive promise of the melodious strains of a brass band of sur- 
passing excellence, I wandered to the place, alone and unknown. 
Farther, however, than hearing the beautiful anthem of ^'Old 
Hundred" very creditably played, and enjoying its performance 
much, (albeit the sound of the instruments was somewhat inter- 
fered with by the noise from the eating and drinking of the nu- 
merous parties who were engaged refreshing nature within the 
gigantic erection,) there was nothing seen or heard within the 
Castle G-arden of New York that would justify or require more 
prominent notice. 

The inquiring visitor to the commercial emporium of America 
may be induced to direct his investigations to the state of crime 
and pauperism in that city ; and if he does so, he will be some- 
what startled on the subject of the latter, particularly if he has 
left the Old Country under the idea that, in coming to a new one, 
he has left destitution behind him. In a report to the municipal 
authorities of New York by Mr. Matsell, (the chief of the New 
York police,) in 1849, it is stated that, in eleven police districts, 
there existed 2955 children without the visible means of support — 
homeless, houseless wanderers, who are forced, either by their pa- 
rents, or by poverty and want of protection, to the perpetration 
of crime for their subsistence. Mr. Matsell further states that, 
of these, two-thirds are girls of from eleven to sixteen years of 
age. The free coloured population of New York, in particular, is 
a class that largely contributes to fill the ranks of mendicity. The 
condition of these poor people is indeed, and in many respects, 



NEW YORK TO BOSTON. 295 

deeply to be deplored. Looked down upon and despised, as they 
unquestionably are by tbe great mass of the white population, 
they form a kind of Pariah tribe amidst the rest of the commu- 
nity. Though freemen, they cannot be said to possess, much less 
to enjoy, the inestimable blessings which the term '^freedom'' 
conveys to the mind of a resident in these isles, where 
" No slave ever trod." 

And if one-fourth of the details heard by me, from intelligent, 
influential residents in the city of New York, were true, the state- 
ment of Mr. Hayne, (one of the senators of South Carolina) is 
not very greatly exaggerated, when he said that *^ there does not 
exist on the face of the whole earth a population so poor, so 
wretched, so vile, so loathsome, so utterly destitute of all the com- 
forts, conveniences, and decencies of life, as the unfortunate Blacks 
of Philadelphia, and New York, and Boston. '^ In the same speech 
(delivered in 1830) Mr. Hayne says, ^^I have seen, in the neigh- 
bourhood of one of the most moral, religious, and refined cities of 
the north, a family of free Blacks driven to the caves of the rocks, 
and there obtaining a precarious subsistence from charity and 
plunder.^^ 

Having remained a short time longer in New York, during 
which I confirmed or corrected opinions formed during my first 
visit, visited some additional scenes, enjoyed the society of kind 
and esteemed friends, saw enough of the New York ladies to con- 
vince me that the reputation they enjoy for elegance of deport- 
ment and beauty of countenance is fully warranted, and had some 
opportunities of satisfying myself as to the handsome, nay, ex- 
tremely luxurious manner in which the mercantile aristocracy 
(and it is beyond all question that there is both an aristocracy of 
birth and an aristocracy of wealth in the great republic) of New 
York in general live, I proceeded in the steamer Massachusetts to 
Stonington, en route for the city of Boston, the chief town in Mas- 
sachusetts, and the capital of New England. 

The sail to Stonington is through the once famed and much 
dreaded strait which lies at the west end of Long Island Sound, 
about eight miles east of New York, and which is called by the 
more descriptive than polite name of Hell-gate. The passage is 
narrow and tortuous; and a bed of rocks below, which extends 
quite across the river, causes the water to boil and struggle with 
considerable violence. But Hell-gate, however useful to terrorists 
in days gone by, or advantageous to novelists as a weapon of ex- 
citement in latter days — or of however difl&cult navigation, even 
now, to sailing vessels — has to the traveller by steam, and in such 
a vessel as the good steamer Massachusetts, lost not only its dan- 



296 NEW YORK TO BOSTON. 

ger, but all the romance of its interest. Whether it was my sense 
of security, or my recent introduction to the whirlpool of Niagara 
and the rapids of the St. Lawrence, that produced the result, I 
know not ; but the result certainly was, that, during the passage 
of the Hell-gate, or Hurl-gate, I felt neither an extraordinary 
shaking, nor any unusual sensation whatever, as, racing with an- 
other steamer, (which eventually outstripped us,) our steamship 
hurried through the turbulent waters, beating them down with her 
paddle-wheels, and tossing them aside, as if in her impatience to 
get into the more open sea. 

The sail from New York to Stonington — a distance of one hun- 
dred and twenty-five miles, through the entire length of Long 
Island Sound, and with Long Island on the one side, and the State 
of Connecticut on the other — is exceedingly pleasing. It did not, 
however, in my case at least, afford anything farther to chronicle, 
either in the way of description or of narrative. 

From Stonington the traveller proceeds by railway to Boston, the 
distance being ninety miles. This railway was unquestionably the 
best, and the best appointed one, I travelled on during my excursion 
through the United States. I might with truth add, that my good 
fortune in this part of my journeyings was not confined to the excel- 
lence of the railway travelled on. It extended to the fellow passen- 
gers — ladies as well as gentlemen — whom I had the pleasure to meet 
with as fellow travellers on the Stonington and Long Island Rail- 
way. This passing tribute is due to one family party in particular, 
to whose intelligent courtesies I was, as a solitary stranger, indebted 
in this part of my journeyings, and who considerately and politely 
offered me much information I might not otherwise have so easily 
procured. Save that the individual members of the travelling party 
referred to were residents of Boston, or its neighbourhood, I had no 
proper means of ascertaining who or what they were. But whoever 
they were, they embodied much intelligence, as well as much beauty. 
But it was not only on this occasion that, in the course of my tour, 
I had been indebted to natives of the good city of Boston. Even 
before reaching New Orleans, an accidental rencontre had led to an 
acquaintance with two young fellow travellers, both of them from 
Boston, and with whom I parted in the crescent city with consider- 
able regret. Again, at the Springs of Saratoga, I had made the 
acquaintance of a gentleman of the same town, whom I had after- 
wards the pleasure of meeting in his native place. So that, although 
I could not go the length of an English friend — one who, while he 
carried about with him most of the excellencies, entertained also not 
a few of the sturdy prejudices of John Bull — when he asserted (even 
from the few specimens of Bostoniana we had met with when travel- 
ling together) that the Boston men were decidedly the most gentle- 



NEW ENGLAND. 297 

manlike in person and in manners of any in the Union, I was in 
every way predisposed for favourable impressions of Boston and its 
inhabitants. Indeed, so strongly was my temporary companion im- 
pressed with this idea of the superior republican graces of the 
Bostonians, that he one day said to me at Niagara, in reference to a 
somewhat distingue party, consisting of two ladies and two gentle- 
men, who joined the dinner table — " I feel sure these people are 
either English or Bostonians/^ Whatever the citizens of Boston 
may think of the oompliment, I can assure them it was a very high 
one in the opinion of its author. But while I cannot, in justice to 
my friends in sundry other cities and towns of the American Union, 
give the inhabitants of the capital of Massachusetts so exclusive a 
place in the field of American intelligence or elegance, I can honestly 
say, that my limited experience of Boston and its society has left a 
most favourable impression on my mind, and excited in me a strong 
desire to repeat my visit. 

But it is not merely on account of the society of Boston, or of 
personal reminiscences connected with some of its denizens, that I 
drew near the capital of Massachusetts with more interest than I had 
approached any other locality in the American Union. In visiting 
the seaboard of the state of Massachusetts, the English or Scottish 
traveller must surely feel that he is approaching almost to hallowed 
ground. 

The Pilgrim Fathers — where is there the understanding that can 
appreciate liberty of conscience, or the heart that can denounce 
oppression, or feel for the oppressed, that does not sympathise with 
their struggles, and respect their heaven-directed and heaven-sup- 
ported heroism ? On an autumnal day in the year 1620, one hun- 
dred and one persons, men, women, and children, all inclusive — 
themselves the winnowings of a larger body who had previously 
made the same attempt, but had been obliged to put back owing to 
the frailty and unseaworthiness of their ships — set sail from the port 
of Plymouth, in England, to cross the broad Atlantic in the May- 
flower, a vessel of only one hundred and eighty tons burthen. These 
emigrants became so for conscience sake ; and that they felt in all 
their intensity those ties of country and of home- which are to be 
found in nearly every human breast, may well be gathered from the 
fact, that one of the earliest acts done by them after their arrival at 
their far-off home across the waters — done even while as yet distracted 
by the pressing temporal necessities of their position — was to draw 
up a voluntary declaration, or deed of constitution, in which they 
acknowledged themselves the subjects of the pedant monarch whose 
blind adhesion to a fancied prerogative, and whose insane attempt to 
establish an impossible uniformity, had driven them forth to the 
then inhospitable wilderness of the New World. In this document, 



298 NEW ENGLAND. 

these early English settlers of America expressly set fo rth that their 
voyage had been undertaken "for the glory of God, the advancement 
of the Christian name, and the honour of their king and country." 
The " Pilgrims/' by whom this work of Christian colonization was 
adventured on, are correctly described by the United States' historian, 
Bancroft, (vol. i. p. 307,) as " Englishmen, Protestants, exiles for 
religion, men disciplined by misfortune, cultivated by opportunities 
of extensive observation, equal in rank as in rights, and bound by no 
code but that which might be imposed by religion, or might be 
created by the public will." 

About the middle of November in the same year, the small but 
resolved band came in sight of the American continent. The land 
at which they first touched now forms part of the state of Massa- 
chusetts ; and even here there is something to indicate that the bark 
which bore them was heaven-directed. When they set out from 
England their intention had been to proceed southward, at least as 
far as the mouth of the Hudson river, and there to settle, somewhere, 
in all probability, about the place where the town of New York now 
stands. Had they succeeded in this design, it is little less than 
certain that one and all of them would have fallen victims to the 
comparatively numerous and warlike Indians who were afterwards 
found to inhabit Long Island and its vicinity. But no such danger 
awaited the little band in the more northern haven into which Provi- 
dence had sent them. The territory about Cape Cod, and for a long 
distance inwards from the coast, had been sometime previously 
devastated by a pestilence, under the withering effects of which 
nearly the whole of its savage occupants and original owners had 
sunk into the tomb. So much had the country been depopulated 
that, (to use the graphic but touching phraseology of the journal 
which describes the proceedings of these colonists during the first 
winter of their location in America, when narrating the results of an 
exploring expedition immediately after their arrival,) " after this we 
digged in sundry like places, but found no more corn — nor anything 
else but graves." It seems to me that there is something in this 
worthy of being pondered over. The Pilgrims had left their native 
land — the land of their forefathers, and of their fondest associations 
— and crossed the broad Atlantic to a far-off country, of which they 
knew little more than this, that it was a land of vast extent, and 
comparatively uninhabited ; and a land in which, in some way or 
other, their own -country claimed a right of property. They had 
done this for conscience sake, and because they would not give way 
to a compelled uniformity in matters of public worship, when they 
thought it sinful so to do. And now that the step was taken, the 
God they served had guided their bark in a direction somewhat con- 
trary to their intentions, and so as to prevent them from being either 



NEW ENGLAND. 299 

themselves "butchered Iby savage cruelty, or compelled to assert their 
independence by force, and to commence the establishment of their 
commonwealth with hands imbrued in the blood of the previous occu- 
pants of the soil. The pestilence had driven out the red men, irre- 
spective of the white man's approach. His lease had been brought 
to a termination by the hand that gave it him, and the Pilgrim 
Fathers of New England were the appointed successors to the red 
man's inheritance. 

But it were altogether out of place to prosecute here this interest- 
ing subject any further, or to follow the career of these earliest emi- 
grants to New England, from the formation of their first settlement 
at Plymouth, (so called after their English port of departure,) on 
the shores of Cape Cod Bay, in 1620, till, by their own expansion, 
and the introduction of other and not in all cases favourable or con- 
genial elements, their descendants and successors expanded into the 
numbers that now occupy the fertile townships of the states Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut. Neither would I have it to be inferred 
that, in so adding my humble tribute to that of others, in vindica- 
tion of the high principles and noble motives that animated the first 
settlers on the New England shores, and that induced them to seek 
for themselves and their descendants a home on the other side of the 
broad Atlantic, I desire to claim for them any higher measure of 
praise than I would for the many equally noble and devoted men 
who saw it to be their privilege, as well as their duty, to remain in 
the country of their forefathers, to contend against a spiritual des- 
potism, and to fight for the establishment of entire liberty of creed 
or conscience — not only for themselves but also for their fellow coun- 
trymen — and who, by so remaining and so contending, achieved their 
end. Were it requisite to make choice between the two, and to ap- 
portion to either class, at the expense of the other, the greater meed 
of praise, it would be a difficult task to perform. If the Puritans 
who emigrated encountered the storms of the Atlantic in a small 
vessel at a stormy period of the year, together with the dangers and 
difficulties of establishing themselves in a new and barbarous north- 
ern country at the commencement of a winter season, they, by so 
doing, secured at once for themselves and their descendants entire 
freedom of person and of conscience, besides escaping the dangers of 
an unequal contest with a bigot king, a subservient ministry, and an 
oppressive priesthood. If the Puritans who remained at home 
escaped the storms which the little Mayflower encountered on the 
voyage across the then unfrequented Atlantic Ocean, or the difficul- 
ties which beset the Pilgrims, particularly during the first winter of 
their settlement, they encountered persecution, and penury, and pri- 
son (besides worse evils) at home, and they did this not merely for 
themselves, but for others. Thanks be to God ! both succeeded in 



300 BOSTON. 

their endeavours. The one laid the foundation for liberty of con- 
science and of worship in the desert, the other established the same 
principles on the ruins of a spiritual despotism. 

But not to prosecute the subject farther, I have deemed myself 
justified in making these few remarks as to the parties by whom, and 
the circumstances under which, this part of the continent of North 
America was first colonised, because I regard the Pilgrim Fathers of 
New England as the noblest body of pioneers that ever went forth 
from any land on a mission of liberty; and to account sufficiently for 
the interest with which I have long viewed all that relates to this 
particular portion of the American Union. 

BOSTON. 

The city of Boston, however, was not established by the first of 
the Pilgrim emigrants. The parties who settled it may, indeed, be 
distinguished from the emigrants by the Mayflower by " some shades 
of theological opinion/' Nor was it until 1630, ten years after the 
arrival of the first pilgrims at Cape Cod, that Boston was settled 
under the auspices of a company constituted in England under the 
title of the Massachusetts Company, and holding a charter from 
King Charles I., who, it has been remarked, strangely enough " es- 
tablished by this charter an independent provisional government 
within his own dominions, at the very time he was seeking to over- 
throw the chief privileges which the British constitution secured, 
and was entering on a contest which involved the absolute supre- 
macy of Crown or Parliament.' ' 

I had almost feared disappointment on the occasion of my visit to 
the capital of the five populous states included within the limits of 
New England. Having heard so much of it and of its beauty, from 
natives and others, I scarce expected that it would come up to the 
ideal formed of it. But it was not so. I was much pleased — in 
many particulars delighted. The situation might not equal the pre- 
conception ; for, although the town lies in a kind of crescent around 
the harbour, and the country beyond rises gradually, yet the rise is 
neither so regular nor so great as to give a fine view of the city from 
any part of the streets or harbours. But the private houses are so 
handsome, and so well appointed ; the shops are so good, and appa- 
rently so well stocked ; and the inhabitants, male and female, seemed, 
as a body, to be so well dressed and cleanly, and withal so cheerful 
and healthful, that, at the very first promenade and drive I had 
about the town of Boston, I was most favourably and agreeably im- 
pressed. Moreover, there seemed to be the union of an academic 
air with a business-like activity about this city, that I had not ob- 
served in any other of the towns of the United States or of Canada. 



BOSTON. 301 

But perhaps it was the knowledge of the fact that Harvard Univer- 
sity was in the immediate neighbourhood, and that I had the honour 
of an introduction to one of the Professors there — to Professor Long- 
fellow, whose contributions to the literary world have given him a 
deserved fame, which is as great in Europe as it can be in America — 
that threw such a classic halo round my first impressions of the city 
of Boston. 

Among the many celebrities of Boston, seen by me on the occa- 
sion of my visit, I find in my note-book prominent mention made of 
the following: — (1.) The common; a verdant park containing 
above forty acres of ground, and having in the centre of it a pond 
with a recently erected jet d'eau. This pleasure-ground is situated 
in the western or more fashionable part of the city, for Boston has 
followed the European, if not the invariable, rule of moving west- 
ward. In its vicinity are the residences of some of the principal 
inhabitants of the state, together with a mansion displaying greater 
antiquity than its neighbours, and shown among the lions of Boston 
as once the residence of John Hancock, the first President of the 
United States of America, and one of the most conspicuous men of 
the Revolutionary period. (2.) In the same locality stands also 
the State House "of Massachusetts, from the lofty dome of which is 
obtained a remarkably fine view of Boston and the surrounding 
country. In this State House there is a pedestrian statue of Wash- 
ington^ from the studio of Chantrey. Of all the statues of Washing- 
ton in which America abounds, this appeared to me to be the most 
natural, easy, and graceful. It reminded me not a little of the 
statue to the British statesman, Greorge Canning, to be seen in 
Westminster Hall, and it impressed me fully as much as did that 
other beautiful production of Chantrey's art. 

When on the subject of statues to Washington, I may here record 
a remark I find entered by me among my memoranda, shortly be- 
fore I uttered the unwelcome '^ farewell,^^ when leaving the shores 
of the United States. Nearly everywhere you go, there are statues 
to Washington — stone, marble, and even wood, are put in requisi- 
tion, to multiply representations of him. All this is very right. 
No one contemplates with greater veneration than I do the charac- 
ter of the great and good George Washington, and no one more 
earnestly wishes that statesmen, on both sides of the Atlantic, 
were more gifted with his noble, disinterested, and far-seeing 
spirit. In a word, I fully acquiesce in the whole of Henry (Lord) 
Brougham's eloquent eulogium, and entirely concur with him when 
he says, after quoting W^ashington's latest words — ^^ It will be the 
duty of the historian and the sage, in all ages, to omit no occasion 
of commemorating this illustrious man ; and, until time shall be 
no more, will a test of the progress which our race has made in 

26 



302 BOSTON. 

wisdom and in virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the 
immortal name of Washington/' Therefore would I say to all, 
and to his countrymen especially — Commemorate Washington and 
his heroic virtues in every possible way ; display by all means you 
can — by pictures, by monuments, and by statues — your veneration 
for his name. But there is no necessity for stopping there. 
Toujours perdrix — without any intermixture — is apt to produce a 
feeling of sameness, if not satiety. There is no necessity for con- 
fining yourselves so much as you have done, even to Washington. 
No doubt, as yet, the United States of America has not a very 
lengthened catalogue of illustrious names. The comparative short- 
ness of her course, as a nation, precludes the possibility of her 
having such a list. But still she has many names which well de- 
serve not only a place in a nation's gratitude, but some substan- 
tial token of a nation's regard. Even among Washington's 
military compatriots, there were several men deserving of some 
national testimonial or tribute of respect ; and young as the United 
States of America are as an independent nation, she is nevertheless 
rich in the possession of various names of high rank in the annals 
of literature, art, and science, to the commemoration of whose 
labours, for the benefit of their country and kind, some part of the 
funds and of the gratitude of the nation might fittingly be de- 
voted. To speak of such men, in reference to the whole of the 
American Union, were too wide a field. But to confine the obser- 
vation to this particular state of Massachusetts. Among the ear- 
lier founders of the state as a colony, the name and fame of 
Grovernor Bradford stands deservedly high. He was the first his- 
torian of the Pilgrim Fathers, and he died in 1657, " lamented," 
says Mather, ^^ by all the colonies of New England, as a common 
father to them >11," and leaving behind him a library of 275 
volumes, which may be considered as the first library of which 
mention is made in the chronicles of America. In the same early 
list will be found also the name of John Winthrop, the first gover- 
nor of the colony established under King Charles' charter, on the 
site now occupied by the city of Boston : of whom it has been 
remarked, that his character for ability, religion, and moderation 
was so generally appreciated, that ''he was admired not only 
throughout New England, but in the mother country, and at 
court/' and of whom Charles I. observed, '' That it was a pity that 
such a worthy gentleman should be no better accommodated than 
with the hardships of America." 

No doubt, a marble monument, erected to the memory of Brad- 
ford, adorns^ the spot on Burial Hill, Plymouth, where lie the 
mortal remains of himself and of his son; and in the King's 
Chapel burying-ground, Tremont Street, Boston, there is a monu- 



BOSTON. 803 

ment over a grave, which records the fact that there repose the 
ashes of " John Winthrop, Grovernor of Massachusetts, who died 
in 1649.'^ But it seems to me these tributes are of too private a 
nature, considering the claims and excellencies of the men whose 
memories they are designed to perpetuate ; and that, with their 
monumental taste, the Bostonians might devote some part of their 
funds to the adorning of their really fine city with testimonials to 
men like these. Or, to come down to more recent times — to times 
when America had assumed a separate identity, and an independent 
position as a nation — Benjamin Franklin, at once one of the most 
celebrated philosophers, and one of the clearest-headed politicians, 
of the age in which he lived, was a native of Boston ; and the late 
lamented Justice Story, if not a native of the city or of the state, 
at least lived and laboured in Boston for a large part of his life. 
"With such and similar claims upon their gratitude, the inhabitants 
of Massachusetts have certainly no reason for arguing that their 
commemoration of the merits and services of their ancestors is con- 
fined to Washington by the necessity of the case. Similar remarks 
might be made in reference to many of the other states of the 
American Confederacy; and, without questioning for a moment 
the propriety of erecting so many testimonials to the name and 
fame of the ^^ Liberator,^^ it were only as well and as creditable to 
remember others of the great departed. 

The name of Boston savours strongly of the old England remi- 
niscences, which Governor Winthrop and his fellow colonists 
brought with them to the woods and wilds of America. The 
Indian name of this particular locality in which the town stands 
was Shawmut, or the Living Fountain ; and the circumstances 
which are supposed to have led to the selection of the spot, were 
the vicinity to the sea, the abundance of pure water, and the 
swelling though not lofty summits afterwards called Copps Hill, 
Fort Hill, and Beacon Hill, which, being three in number, have 
in their turn given rise to the name of Tremont, with which the 
streets, hotels, squares, and places in Boston, and some neigh- 
bouring towns, are so very liberally supplied. 

But passing in rapid review, (1) Harvard College, which is 
situated about three miles from Boston, and is the oldest college in 
the States, (having been incorporated in 1638, in consequence of 
a legacy of £779 17s. 2<i. left for the purpose by the Rev. John 
Harvard,) and which, from a beginning so humble, has risen so 
far that it now comprises an academical institution, halls of law, 
of divinity, and of medicine, with several libraries, containing 
together about 40,000 volumes ; (2) Faneuil Hall, left to the town 
by a gentleman of the name of Faneuil, which contains a portrait 
of Washington, and also one of the donator of the building ; (3) 



304 BOSTON. 

The Custom-Hoiise, a large fine building in the Doric style of 
architecture; and other objects to which the stranger's attention 
in Boston is generally, or will be naturally directed, I would linger 
for a little over an attempt to describe Boston Cemetery, situated 
at Mount Auburn. 

I have already said that, during my visit to the United States of 
America, I saw many burying grounds of exceeding beauty and 
appropriate quietude ; and I trust it is not a mere appetite for 
melancholy musings, but a principle which declares it to be true 
wisdom to mingle sadness with mirth, that has engendered in me 
somewhat of a taste for visiting such scenes. But whether it be 
that my frame of mind, at the time I visited Mount Auburn Ceme- 
tery, predisposed me to be favourably impressed with the charac- 
teristics of the scene, or that I was peculiarly fortunate in the 
society in which I visited it, certain it is, that I know of no last 
resting-place for the departed, that rises to my mind as containing 
more of the elements of an appropriate scene of repose, after the 
turmoil and the care of life are over. It was on the evening pre- 
vious to my leaving America that I so visited the Cemetery at 
Mount Auburn. Causes personal to myself had depressed my 
spirits to a somewhat unusual degree ; and in complying with my 
request, by taking their afternoon drive in the direction of Mount 
Auburn, and in visiting the cemetery in question, my kind friends 

Mr. and Mrs. A conferred on me as great a favour as they 

could have done, and acted in entire accordance with the complex- 
ion of my wishes. 

The Mount Auburn Cemetery of Boston embraces a large space 
of ground of a very undulating character, well covered with wood, 
and containing several ponds of water, dells, and glens, and every- 
thing to adapt it for the purpose to which it is devoted. The 
grounds are laid out with much taste and simplicity : there is more 
than the usual amount of taste and of variety among the tombs 
and monuments, and they are not as yet too numerous to detract 
from the rustic beauty of the calm retreat. Its characteristics are 
neatly embodied in certain lines I observed in an American news- 
paper — lines recited by the Rev. Dr. Dowling of New York, when 
dedicating another cemetery, and which are the composition of a 
daughter of the reverend speaker : — 

" I'd lay me down where the spring may crown 
My tomb with its earliest flowers, 
Where the Zephyrs stray, and the sunbeams play, 
'Mid the peaceful cypress bowers." 

Within the bounds of the Necropolis is a place named Conse- 
cration Dell, a lovely little spot, where Justice Story delivered 
the inauguration discourse when the cemetery was opened to the 



TOWN OF LOWELL. 805 

public. In the vicinity of this' dell appropriately stands the family 
monument, erected over the grave of the speaker of the discourse 
—the able, erudite, and excellent Story — a distinguished jurist, 
whose accuracy, learning, and ability are as widely known, and I 
trust as generally appreciated, in Great Britain as they are in 
America. The tongue that inaugurated the locality is silent, but 
the genius, wisdom, and worth of the speaker ^^ liveth and speaketh 
for ever." The monument over Story's grave is exceedingly sim- 
ple, and the inscription on it is neat and aj^propriate, — 
" He is risen — he is not here." 

In another part of the grounds stands a semi-public monument, 
erected to the memory of the distinguished and accomplished Dr. 
Channing, (long one of, if not the most eminent of, the divines 
and pulpit orators of America,) by a few of his Christian friends. 
So runs the inscription. In this burying-place there lie also the 
remains of the well-known phrenologist. Dr. Spurzheim, who died 
at Boston when on a tour through the United States, in the pro- 
mulgation of his peculiar and favourite theories. 

In the vicinity of Boston, within twenty-six miles of it, and 
connected with it by railway, stands the manufacturing, or as it 
may be correctly termed the factory town of Lowell, of which so 
much has of late years been written by travellers from Europe. It 
is not my intention to add much to the mass of statements made 
by these writers, having introduced the subject simply to mention 
one or two facts connected with the origin of Lowell, which I have 
not seen in any other published work, and which I believe are only 
generally known on the spot or in its neighbourhood. 

The parties to whom belong the honour of having originated the 
undertaking which led to the foundation of the city of Lowell, are 
the late Patrick T. Jackson, and the Honourable Nathan Appleton 
of Boston, now or lately one of the senators for the state of Mas- 
sachusetts in the upper house of the United States legislature. It 
was, I believe, when travelling in Europe that the idea first pre- 
sented itself to the mind of Mr. Appleton. At all events, after 
his return to Boston, it occurred both to him and to Mr. Jackson 
that there was an opportunity for introducing the manufacture and 
printing of calicoes into Massachusetts ; and in the summer of 
1821 they together made an excursion into the neighbouring state 
of New Hampshire, in search of a suitable locality in which to 
commence their operations, but without finding any which equalled 
their expectations or their requirements. On their return to Mas- 
sachusetts, the idea suggested itself of purchasing the stock of the 
Patucket Canal on the Merrimack river (which had been originally 
constructed in 1793 simply as a channel for boats and rafts round 

26* 



306 TOWN OF LOWELL. 

the Falls) so as to secure it as a means of turning tlie machinery 
of the factories to be erected ; and to purchase also such lands as 
might be necessary for the purposes contemplated. At this stag© 
of the arrangements a Mr. Kirk Boott was taken into the pro- 
jected enterprize; and the matter progressed under his manage- 
ment and agency until a company was formed, under the name of 
the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, which may be regarded 
as the germ and foundation of the present city of Lowell. This 
was in 1 822 , and while there was then only one company and a 
population not exceeding 200 people, Lowell now contains above 
30,000 inhabitants, and there are about a dozen different joint- 
stock manufacturing companies carrying on business in it yi a very 
extensive way. It were foreign to the character of a work like the 
present, to enter into details regarding the names, constitution, 
capital, or operations of these several companies — although there 
are abundant published materials to be had in Boston to enable a 
very clear statement to be given on the subject. But it may not 
be out of place to mention that, notwithstanding the productions 
of Lowell being protected in their American home markets from 
the competition of foreign goods of a similar or substitutive cha- 
i-acter, the interest payable on the stock of none of the companies 
is greater than that which may be obtained by lending money on 
the security of lands and houses, and does not exceed that paid on 
the stock of most of the joint-stock banks of Scotland. This 
appears from a printed tabular statement I saw when in Boston, 
and from which I noted down the general result. But this fact 
does not detract from the merit of the men who, with far-sighted 
jDolicy, saw the capabilities of Lowell as a fitting location for manu- 
facturing operations, and acted upon their anticipations. In a letter 
addressed by the founder, Mr. N. Appleton, to the Middlesex Me- 
chanics' Association of Lowell, (in reference to their request that 
he should sit for a portrait of himself to be placed in their hall,) 
Mr. Appleton mentions that, when he and his enterprising asso- 
ciates first visited the scenes of their intended operations, in 
jS'ovember 1821, one of the party remarked that some of them 
might probably live to see the place contain twenty thousand inha- 
bitants. The prediction, extravagant as it seemed at the time, has 
been realized. Mr. Appleton himself has lived to see Lowell con- 
tain thirty thousand inhabitants, and there is every prospect that 
he will yet live to see within it double that population. For the 
sake of his country, as well as for the sake of those more closely 
connected with him, it is to be hoped that he may be spared to 
do so. 

Some time back I remarked, that it was on the evening of the day 
previous to my leaving the United States that, in the society of the 



FEELINGS ON LEAVING AMERICA. 307 

gentleman above referred to, and of his lady, I visited the cemetery at 
Mount Auburn, and that my feelings on the occasion were in keep- 
ing with the scene. They were so, despite the cheering thoughts 
that on the morrow I was to resume careering over the waters on my 
return to Old England and to home ; and also despite — or rather, I 
should say, in consequence of the kindness of my reception in America 
— kindness which I had experienced in almost every part of it — often 
from total strangers. But I was now to leave America with but 
little probability of ever again revisiting it; and notwithstanding 
the pleasure with which I regarded a return to my ^^ ain countrie,^^ I 
am not ashamed to confess that it was with many painful emotions 
that I contemplated doing so. 

As to the reception and treatment in America of so humble an 
individual as the Author of these volumes, all that is to be said may 
and will be recorded in a single sentence. From the period when I 
first put my foot on that continent, until I left it, I received much 
unvarying kindness, not only from those to whom my credentials intro- 
duced me, but from the inhabitants of the country generally ; and, if 
I did hear or overhear at any time remarks of a nature calculated to 
wound my feelings, or perchance my prejudices, as a British subject, 
it was from the lips of comparatively ignorant and illiterate persons, 
and usually when the utterer knew as little about the person who 
overheard him as he did about the subject on which he was speaking. 
Let me add that I felt it to be my duty to reciprocate in civility, and 
— without disguising my unfavourable opinions, if circumstances 
naturally led to an expression of them — not unnecessarily to obtrude 
them where their exposition was profitless or uncalled for. I heart- 
ily concur with the statement of the author of a little book on the 
United States, lately published, when he gives it as the result of 
his experience, that " the citizens of the United States do not dis- 
like Englishmen individually — on the contrary they are rather dis- 
posed to like them, and to pay them most respectful attention when 
they visit America. Their dislike is to John Bull, the traditional, 
big, bullying, borough-mongering and monopolist,^^ (he might have 
added prejudiced) "John Bull.'^ Neither do the inhabitants of 
Great Britain dislike their brethren of the United States : " on the 
contrary, we are disposed to like them, and to give them a cordial 
welcome amongst us. But our dislike is to Jonathan — bragging, 
annexing, and repudiating Jonathan." These respective antipathies 
are surely equally well founded : but the intelligent of the two na- 
tions having nothing in common with such absurd extremes, and 
nothing to do with them, unless it be to make them the subject of 
mutual amusement. Sprung from the same Anglo-Saxon ancestry ; 
speaking the same copious and energetic language; and seemingly, 
and in a very especial manner intrusted by Providence with the exe- 



308 AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 

cution of the same glorious task — the spreading of peace, commerce, 
Christianity, and civilisation^ over the two greatest divisions of the 
globe — it must of necessity be the wish of all the wise, as well as of 
all the good of either land, that the two nations should ever be found 
acting in concert in wise and well-directed efforts for the accomplish- 
ment of universal weal ; and that, in the language of the American 
toast, " the Atlantic which ever rolls between them should ever prove 
a pacific ocean/^ If, therefore, all or any of my attempts at a portraiture 
of the scenery or society of the United States of America, should seem 
to any to be somewhat too eulogistic, I can only deny the impeach- 
ment, refer to my motto, and declare, in the words of the immortal 
bard of Avon, that 

" All my reports go with the modest truth, 
Not more, nor clipp'd, but so." - 



CHAPTER Xy 



" Where is the true man's fatherland ? 

Is it where he by chance is born ? 

Doth not the yearning spirit scorn 
In such scant borders to be spanned ? 
Oh yes ! his fatherland must be 
As the blue heavens — wide and free." 



I AM now leaving the shores of America, and, save in so far as 
other subjects have presented themselves in natural connexion with 
the narrative of my journey ings, I have endeavoured to confine my- 
self to what I personally saw, heard, and encountered, during my 
trip from Mobile Point to Boston ; at the same time, and in as few 
words as I could convey my meaning in, endeavouring to give to my 
reader the impressions formed at the time by my experiences, modi- 
fied and corrected by after reflection. In doing this, I have done all 
that was contemplated. If I have done it at all well, I have done 
as much as my ambition prompted me to attempt. But, nevertheless, 
I feel that I have not touched on many topics which the reader may 
very naturally expect to find treated of in a book of travels in the 
United States of America. In particular, I have not professed to 
give any opinion as to the general tone of society in America, either 
as regards mind or morals. Neither have I thought myself justified 
in characterising, or rather in caricaturing, the phraseology and con- 
versational style of our transatlantic brethren : and last, and cer- 
tainly not least among my omissions, I have not said anything, either 
as to the past history, the present condition, or the future prospects 
of the slave question in the great republic. One or two remarks on 



AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 309 

each of these subjects will sufficiently explain at once the cause and 
the extent of these somewhat singular omissions in a European work 
which professes to treat of the United States of America. As to the 
general tone of male and female society in America, in relation to 
mind and manners, I may have formed — nay, I did form — my own 
opinions in the different places I visited; and it is but fair to say 
that, from what I saw, these opinions could not be otherwise than 
highly favourable. But still I have not professed to give the reader 
any information on the subject. My stay was too short, and my op- 
portunities for judging too limited, to permit of my arriving at any 
general conclusions on questions lying so far below the surface of 
society. As regards the national manners in America, all I feel 
justified in saying is, that, in so far as I saw, the same principles of 
action prevail in private life, the same circumstances produce the 
same results, the same motives give rise to the same actions in 
America as in England ; and that he or she who would be considered 
a lady or a gentleman in America, would be considered equally en- 
titled to the distinction in England, and no more. In reference to 
the oft-quoted and much-caricatured peculiarities of our transatlantic 
friends, I would say that I heard nothing of the alledged general 
use or misuse of words not in an Englishman's vocabulary, or of 
English words to mean things and ideas different from the things or 
ideas we would understand them to mean in Great Britain. No doubt 
there are, in the conversation, and even in the writings of some 
Americans, occasional uses of words which sound unwonted to the 
English ear ; but, in most cases, it would be difficult to prove that 
the use so made of particular words or phrases was at variance with 
their etymological meaning and strict significance. Again, among 
the general travelling public of the United States, one frequently 
hears such words as "fix,' ^ "settle,'' "dander,'' "calculate," "guess," 
" reckon," &c., applied in a manner that it is of course impossible 
to justify or defend. But the conversation, in good society, is as 
little interlarded with expletives, or with solecisms in language, as 
is the conversation of similar society in Great Britain ; and sure I 
am that, limited as was my stay in each place, I could point out 
domestic circles in Boston, and in several of the other cities of the 
American Union, where the use of the extraordinary words and sen- 
tences, which many of my countrymen think to be ordinary character- 
istics of " Yankee phrase," would be viewed with as much surprise 
as they would be in the most courtly circles of queenly England. It 
is all very desirable to write agreeable, piquant, and readable books, 
but it is too bad to sacrifice truth at the shrine of effect, for the pur- 
pose of making them so. 

Equally laconic, but for a very different reason, has this book been 
on the great subject of American slavery. I cannot indeed say that 



310 AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 

slavery and the slave trade are subjects wbich I had not attempted' 
to study — in truth they have occupied my thoughts, and been to me 
subjects of reflection, before I went, and also when in, as well as af- 
ter I returned from the United States of America. But I have pur- 
posely refrained from entering on the large and important topic of 
American slavery at any length, or from adding to the much that 
has been written by other writers upon it — and that not only because 
of its magnitude and importance, but because of some other reasons 
which I shall shortly and honestly mention — even though I do so- 
under the impression, if not the fear, that they may surprise and dis^' 
appoint some of my friends on both sides of the Atlantic, if not ou^ 
both sides of the question. ■ 

It may sound strange to say, that too much has already been writ- 
ten and said on the subject of slavery in the United States of Ame- 
rica. But, in a certain sense at least, such appears to me to be the 
fact. At all events, I am prepared to take the responsibility of say- 
ing that the inconsiderate zeal of abolitionists in this country, and, 
still more, in the Northern States of America, in writing and speak- 
ing without due consideration of the peculiar position of their breth- 
ren who are the owners of the slaves in the Southern States, has 
raised up a spirit of determination to uphold and continue the system 
of slavery, which will tend to retard the result it was designed to 
promote. The spirit so excited may be a fitful one, but no one who 
has visited the Southern States of the American Union but must ad- 
mit that is was and is a very determined one. The publicity and 
violence of this external warfare against slavery has, as it were, 
roused the pride and excited the energies of the slaveholders, thrown 
them upon the sympathies of each other, and prepared them to act 
more resolutely, and more unitedly, against what they conceive to be 
an unjust and an unwise attempt to involve them and their fortunes 
in sudden and irretrievable ruin. An unwonted energy pervades 
their speeches and their actions ; and instead of permitting them- 
selves to consider the comparative advantages and disadvantages of 
the systems of free and of slave labour, they start at once with the 
assumption that the latter is the one which it is their interest and 
their privilege to defend. Desirous as I am to see slavery abolished 
all over the globe, and anxious though I be that such a glorious day 
should speedily come, I do regard the position of the slave-holders 
in the Southern States of the great republic of America with much 
interest and some sympathy. What they are to do with their slaves, 
or for the proper cultivation of their lands, after emancipation, are 
questions which have been often put, and never yet satisfactorily an- 
swered. It surely must be somewhat galling to the men so situated 
— around and among whom slavery has rooted itself as a domestic 
institution, intertwining itself with every part of their affairs — to 



AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 311 

find those of their own confederation, removed from all chance of 
personal participation in the dangers or the difficulties of a change, 
or still more those of a distant clime but kindred tongue, coolly pro- 
mulgating sentiments, and even using more indefensible means, to 
swamp all their hopes, frustrate all their plans, and destroy their 
properties, if not their lives. It is difficult for parties situated as the 
southern planters of the North American Union are, to give their 
adversaries the credit for a disinterested and a wise philanthropy, in 
thus continuing to urge on the work of emancipation without regard 
to consequences, or adequate preparation against unfortunate results ; 
and there is room for, if there be not reason in, the taunt of Colonel 
Haynes, when he says of the emancipationists of the north, that, 
while " they do not indeed throw themselves into the flames, they 
are nevertheless employed in lighting up the torches of discord 
throughout the country/' 

But I would not have it understood that I am to any extent, or 
in any degree, a defender of American slavery ; and least of all would 
I have it supposed that I would desire the day of slave emancipation 
in America to be indefinitely postponed, or protracted for a single 
hour beyond what is necessary for the preparation of the community, 
and of the slaves themselves, for the greatness of the change. I am 
aware that this view of the matter, that even this style of reasoning, 
will be distasteful to not a few whom I esteem and respect, and 
whose motives, at least, I admire } and I know that I may be told, 
that this argument of " wait a little longer" is just the very one that 
has been repeated from the commencement of Grenville Sharpe's 
crusade against slavery down to the present time. But, conscious 
that I have no sinister view in using it, and that I am recording 
opinions formed dispassionately and on the spot, after ocular demon- 
stration as to the existing state of things in the West Indian colonies 
of Britain, of France, of Denmark, and of Spain, I repeat it as my 
conviction that, were there less noise made on both sides of the At- 
lantic as to the emancipation of the slaves in the United States of 
America, it would conduce to the present comfort both of the slave 
and of the planter. Such discreet forbearance, while it would not 
retard, might probably accelerate the very event which the noise and 
clamour is intended to bring about. That the period of entire eman- 
cipation is on the wing, and rapidly approaching, I cannot doubt for 
a moment. The whole tendency of the social economy of the 
United States, is in that direction. The true interests of the whole 
country lies that way, and the general spread of light and intelligence 
must necessarily lead to the same conclusion. Nay, more : the in- 
creased and increasing influence of the northern or free states, renders 
the permanence of the present system a matter almost of impossi- 
bility, unless, indeed, the Union itself be made to give way for the 



312 



AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 



prevention of the result. Indeed, I question if there be one sensible, 
thinking man, throughout the length and breadth of the American 
Union, who would venture coolly to say that the time is never to 
arrive when African slavery will be finally and for ever abolished I 
throughout the length and breadth of the Continent of America, i 
But there are yet difl&culties and dangers in the way — difficulties 
and dangers to the present slave-holders, and difficulties and dangers 
as regards the slaves themselves : and again I say, that, from what I 
saw of the determined state of public feeling on this subject gene- 
rally prevalent in the United States, and in particular in the more 
southern states, I feel that there is great chance of the time of final 
emancipation being deferred through the action and reaction of incon- 
siderate zeal. To those who take an interest in the question of 
whether this matter of American slavery is likely to be determined 
by the increasing comparative influence and power of the free states 
over the slave-holding ones, the following tables, which exhibit the 
relative political strength of the two, and indicates very distinctly on 
which side the scale preponderates, will not prove uninteresting : — 



FEEE STATES. 




Electors for 


Whole Niimber 


Average Vote 




President. 


of Votes. 


for each 

Elector. 


Maine, .... 


9 


87,000 


9,666 


Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, 






12 

4 


134,409 
11,155 


11,200 

2,788 


Vermont, 






6 


47,907 


7,984 ■ 


New Hampshire, 






6 


50,104 


8,350 


Connecticut, . 






6 


62,365 


10,394 


New York, . 






36 


453,431 


12,595 


New Jersey, . 






7 


77,735 


11,105 


Pennsylvania, 






26 


367,952 


14,152 


Ohio, 






23 


328,489 


14,282 


Indiana, 






12 


152,752 


12,729 


Illinois, 






9 


125,121 


13,902 


Michigan, 

Wisconsin, 

Iowa, 






5 
4 


65,106 
39,166 


13,003 
9,791 






4 


24,303 


6,074 


Total 






169 


2,027,006 


11,994* 



Average number for each elector. 



AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 



313 



SLAVE STATES. 


States. 


Electors for 
President. 


Whole number 
of Votes. 


Average Vote 
for each 

^Elector. 


Delaware, 


3 


12,399 


4,134 


Maryland, 






8 


72,355 


9,042 


Virginia, 






17 


91,719 


5,395 


North Carolina, 






11 


78,473 


7,133 


Georgia, 






10 


92,346 


9,234 


Florida, 






3 


7,777 


2,592 


Alabama, 






9 


61,845 


6,871 


Mississippi, . 






6 


52,459 


8,743 


Louisiana, 






6 


33,588 


5,598 


Texas, . 






4 


12,468 


3,117 


Arkansas. 






3 


16,888 


5,629 


Tennessee, 






13 


123,124 


9,471 


Kentucky, 






12 


116,861 


9,738 


Missouri, 






7 


72,748 


10,392 


Total,* 






112 


315,050 


7,545* 



For the right understanding of the preceding tabular statement, 
and to enable the reader to deduce from it the conclusions which it 
warrants, it may be expedient to take a rapid survey of the leading 
characteristics of the political system of the United States of Ame- 
rica—particularly as it certainly is not of the simple character gene- 
rally supposed. 

In particular, the mode of electing the members constituting the 
three bodies of the state politic is essentially different — each from 
both the others. The members of the House of Representatives, 
the Senators, and the President, are all elected on principles which 
differ materially. The House of Representatives (which for the 
present consists of 230 members, and is renewed by election every 
second year,) is chosen by ballot, and from the whole body of the 
people — one member or representative being allowed to each state, 
for every 70,000 inhabitants which it contains; so that the more 
populous the state the larger its share or voice in the general govern- 
ment, in so far at least as the lower branch of the legislature is 
concerned. The members of the Senate, or Upper House, (who 
hold their seats for six years,) are, however, chosen in a very differ- 
ent manner, and on a very different principle. They are elected by 
the local legislatures of the individual states composing the Federal 
Union ; and two senators being allowed as the representatives for 
each state, the smaller or less populous states have here as large a 
* South Carolina electors are chosen bv the Legislature. 

27 



314 AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 

share in the government as their more important companions, of 
denser population or more extended territorial possessions. The 
mode of appointing the President, again, is a kind of Union between 
the two systems of election applicable respectively to the " Com- 
mons^' and "Lords'' of the United States' Legislature. The Pre- 
sident of the United States of America (probably the most important 
office in the world the elevation to which is by election of the 
people) is chosen every four years: and while, in strict significance 
of language, he may be said to be elected by the people, his appoint- 
ment does not proceed directly from them in the same manner as 
does the appointment of the members of the House of Represen- 
tatives, or lower House of Congress. The President is chosen by 
electoral colleges. Of these colleges there is one for each state; 
and the number of members composing it is regulated by the joint 
number of the representatives and senators which the particular 
state sends to Congress. Thus Maine, having seven representatives 
and two senators, has an electoral college composed of nine ; Rhode 
Island, having only two representatives and two senators, has an 
electoral college of four ; while the populous state of New York, 
having thirty-four members of the Lower House of Congress and 
the usual quota of two for the Upper, has thirty-six members in 
her college for the choice of the President. The effect of such an 
arrangement, in throwing political power into the hands of the more 
populous states, is too obvious to require illustration or to justify 
argument. 

From this brief explanatory statement, it will be understood that 
the first figures in the preceding tables show the number com- 
posing the electoral college of each state, the second the number 
of votes in the state, and the third the proportion subsisting be- 
tween the two. When it is further mentioned, that the whole votes 
of each College go one way, and according as the majority sway 
it, (thus, if New York Electoral College contains twenty Whigs 
and sixteen Democrats, the whole of her thirty-six votes will go 
for the Whig candidate,) the value of the table, as an indica- 
tion of how the scales of power preponderate, will be sufficiently 
obvious. 

Nor would the view be complete without noticing the very rapid 
increase, of late years, in the political importance of the north-wes- 
tern states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, and Wiscon- 
sin, all of them slave-repudiating. A few years ago, the political 
influence of these six states was scarcely either known or felt. 
Within eight years, they have increased in population in a ratio of 
49 per cent. Now, their votes for the President, and their voice in 
Congress generally, is much more than sufficient to swamp those of 
the old southern slave-holding states of Virginia, North Carolina^ 



AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS. 815 

Georgia, and Louisiana. In 1840, the population of the north- 
western states was about 2,900,000 ; in 1850, it is certainly not 
less than 4,500,000. If they progress for the next ten years as 
they have done for the last eight, their votes for the Presidency 
will outweigh that of all the slave-holding states together, even 
should the future increase of the latter be according to the ratio of 
the past. 

Do not these simple facts speak volumes on the question of Ame- 
rican slavery ? Do they not lead irresistibly to the conclusion that, 
provided only the Republican Confederation of North America con- 
tinues — if the American Union only survives the fierce assaults at 
present making against its integrity, and holds together for ten years 
longer-^the increase in the political power of the northern and 
western states will have made them so preponderating — so over- 
whelming — as to enable them to carry triumphantly any measure 
they may determinedly resolve on ? And is there any one, either in 
the United States of America or in Great Britain, who seriously 
doubts that, if these free states of the Union had such transcendant 
power, it would not be employed, first indirectly to discountenance 
and suppress, and thereafter, directly to destroy, slavery and slave- 
dealing, throughout the whole of the republic ? If there be, let him 
attentively peruse the language of complaint, on the subject of nor- 
thern and western aggression, and of slave-concealing and removing, 
even now used, on the part of the southern representatives, in the 
American Congress. 

Another plain corollary from the above fact is, that anything that 
goes to increase the number of the free states, must necessarily tend 
to precipitate the above anticipated denouement and result. It is 
only in this view that the southern states of the Union are justified 
in the strenuous opposition they are now making to the introduction 
of California into the republican brotherhood, with an anti-slavery 
manifesto emblazoned on her constitution. Even one state will 
make a serious difierence, particularly as the south can have but 
little hope of recruiting her ranks by territorial additions. It is 
scarcely necessary to add that, if ever the " Canadian annexation- 
ists,^^ aided by republican influence, should succeed in their difficult 
attempt, the fact of their doing so would very speedily, and for ever, 
settle in the negative the question of slavery and the slave trade, all 
over the great continent of North America. 

Such are a few of the reasons which have induced me to exclude, 
in a great measure, from the pages of this work, the so much agitated 
question of American slavery. Even had I the space, the statistics, 
and the inclination, for its full discussion, I am satisfied that nothing 
which my pen, or even more able ones, will now write upon it could 
accelerate the event so much to be desired, although it might tend to 



316 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

irritation of feeling, or perchance retard the issue, or aid in surround- 
ing it with disastrous incidents with which it might not otherwise be 
attended. But, even while I do so, I rejoice in the conviction that 
events are progressing in their natural and necessary course, that 
must inevitably lead to the wished-for result ; and that, provided only 
the Union be preserved in its integrity, there is every prospect that, 
ere many years shall have passed away, we may receive intelligence 
of the passing of some measure of " American abolition and emanci- 
pation/^ 

But there is another question relating to England and America — 
one which affects and concerns the interests of both nations, or at 
least the interests of a highly valuable and important class of the 
communities of both countries, to which I gladly turn before closing 
my remarks — I mean the question of an international copyright law 
between these two kindred nations of the world. This is a subject 
to which I profess to have paid some attention, ere I left my native 
country ; to which I also directed much of my attention while in the 
United States ; and to the attainment of right views regarding which, 
I have been aided by information supplied by professional friends on 
both sides of the Atlantic ; so that, if my opinions be unsound, and 
my arguments inconclusive, I have certainly no proper apology to 
plead for giving them to the world. 

In considering the question of an international law of copyright 
between England and the United States of America, which would 
have the effect of protecting the works of the authors of the one 
country from being reprinted verbatim et literatim in the other, and 
there sold without his (or her) consent or participation in the profits 
in any way, it seems to me that the natural way of treating the sub- 
ject will be to consider — 1. The reasons which render such an inter- 
national law, particularly between these two countries, desirable or 
the reverse ; 2. The principles on which the question of the law of 
copyright depends; and 3. The effects that may be expected to arise 
to the literary communities of the two nations from the enactment of 
such a law. Distinct views on these three points will, I apprehend, 
place the subject in such a light as will enable any one to form for 
himself at all events an intelligent and a dispassionate opinion on this 
important question. 

From the manner in which this topic of an international law of 
copyright between England and the United States of America is 
often treated, as well as from the spirit in which it is occasionally 
discussed, it would almost seem as if America stood alone in her re- 
fusal of reciprocal legislation on this interesting subject, and that 
such refusal amounted to a denial of that protection which, in point 
of morality, she was bound to accord. Now, it is only placing the 
argument on its proper basis to say, that this is an erroneous view of 



INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 317 

tHe matter. The United States neither stands alone in her refusal to 
grant to foreign authors, as regards works published abroad, a copy- 
right protection within her own limits, nor is there any propriety of 
language in affirming that there is a positive violation of the rules of 
morality in her refusal of a reciprocity of legislation on this subject. 
It is the importance of the question, when considered in relation to 
England and America, that has given rise to this erroneous idea in 
connection with which it is often viewed, and which I would here in 
the outset desire to remove. Speaking the same language, sprung from 
the same ancestry, personally interested or excited by the same his- 
tories, references, and reminiscences, the work adapted for the one 
people is, by the necessity of the case, equally accessible as well as 
intelligible to the other. There is here no translation required. 
The book, as published for the one country, addresses itself to the 
people of the other ; and thus it is that, while Byron, Scott, Macauley, 
Alison, Dickens, &c., have as ready a sale in America as in England, 
Longfellow, Cooper, Prescott, Irving and Bancroft, are as well known 
in Great Britain, as if they had all been born and educated beneath 
the skies of England. In literature the two nations are, in point of 
fact, virtually the same ; and hence the magnitude of this question of 
copyright, considered in relation to them — which very magnitude has 
excited a keenness of discussion that has led to views and expressions 
having no proper application to the question. To talk of " piracy'' 
when characterising the act of a publisher, in the one country, in 
printing and publishing without the consent of the author, a book 
originally published in the other, and to stigmatise as literary 
" pirates'' the parties so republishing, is to misapply terms, and to do 
so in a way which is anything but calculated to aid the cause such 
statements are generally intended to serve. The fact is, that the 
question here at issue cannot be determined on any abstract princi- 
ples of morals, right or wrong. No doubt, and under one view of 
the question, a strong case of hardship towards literary men may be 
made out ; and, being so, it may be made to form a legitimate argu- 
ment and an important element in an attempt to arrive at a right 
determination on the question. But the question itself is surely one 
of expediency j and the sooner this is seen and admitted, the sooner 
are we likely to have it settled on a satisfactory reciprocal basis. As 
an independent nation, the United States are quite entitled to refuse 
to concur with England in any measure of international copyright, if 
they see fit to do so, and if they can do so without injustice to any 
class of their own suJ3Jects, whose interests they are bound to protect. 
Whether it is their policy so to refuse, and whether American states- 
men can so refuse without trampling on the rights of members of 
their own confederation, are separate and important questions. But, 
in so far as Great Britain and her authors and people are concerned, 

27* 



318' INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

I cannot see that they can charge America with injustice towards 
them, whatever view she may continue to take upon this subject. 
Therefore would I lay it down as the basis on which the question is 
to be here discussed, that, as an international one, it is only to be 
properly determined on considerations of expediency ; so that they 
who look here for the hard terms so often applied to our transatlantic 
brethren, in relation to this matter, will look in vain. If, even view-, 
ing the matter on this basis of expediency, it can be shown that, in 
reference to their refusal to reciprocate with England, the United 
States of America are acting inexpediently and unwisely — inasmuch 
as they are repressing literature throughout their own border — doing 
injustice to their own authors — retarding the progress of their 
own literary shool — and refusing encouragement to that very class of 
foreigners whom it were both their dignity and their interest most to 
encourage — I think I shall have done more for the real advancement 
of the question than if, contrary to my convictions of international 
law, I were to endeavour to show that a refusal to reciprocate on this 
subject were the perpetration of a violation of the comitas gentium. 
The true doctrine of the jus gentium^ in reference to the length to 
which one independent state is bound to recognise the laws or rights 
of the subjects of another in any respect, is, as it is laid down in the^ 
third law of Huber,* where he says — '^ That the rulers of a nation 
act up to the principles of international law and comity where they 
admit that the laws of every people, exercised within their own limits, 
should have everywhere the like force, in so far as they do not 'preju- 
dice the power or rights of other states or their own citizens'' 

If anything were wanting to my mind to satisfy me that it is an 
error to view this question as one involving, on the part of America, 
(in her refusal of a system of reciprocity,) an absolute negation of a 
claim for justice towards foreign authors, it would be the fact that 
the most eminent men in England have taken opposing views, even 
when the subject has been considered with reference to this country 
alone. Although it may now be considered as a question settled in 
the negative, it was a question long and ably, as well as anxiously, 
discussed in the courts of Great Britain, whether there existed a 
copyright at common law, and irrespective of statute. Indeed, the 
decisions on the point were at first conflicting. In the case of Mil- 
ler against Taylor, of which a very copious report is given in Sir 
John _ Barrow's " Reports of Cases decided in the King's Bench,'' 
(vol. iv. p. 2303,) the question was originally decided in favour of 
the existence of a common-law right. In that case the question was 
very elaborately discussed, it being in general maintained for the 
plaintiff that there is a real property remaining to authors after pub- 

* Huber, lib. 1 , t. 3, De Conflictu Legura, sec. 2. 



INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 319 

lication of their works; and that they only, or those who claim 
under them, have a right to multiply the copies of such their lite- 
rary property at their pleasure for sale ; that this is a common-law 
right which has always existed, and does still exist, independent of, 
and not taken away by, the statute of 8 Anne, Cap. 19. While for 
the defendant the general answer was, " That no such right of pro- 
perty remained in the author after the publication of his work; 
that the pretension of a right at common law was a mere fancy and 
imagination, for which there was no ground or foundation.^' In 
that case the judgment was for the existence of a right at common 
law — a right founded on the principles of equity. But in the sub- 
sequent case of Donaldson against Becket, decided 22d Feb. 1774, 
in which the question came up before the House of Lords, upon an 
appeal from a decree of the Court of Chancery, (founded on the 
judgment in Miller's case,) and after the opinions of the whole 
judges upon the point had been taken, it was finally settled that, if 
such common-law right ever existed, it had been taken away by the 
statute of Queen Anne ; and that an author's only remedy was in 
virtue, and on the condition, of that statute. True, the majority 
were also of opinion that a right at common law had existed ante- 
rior to the passing of the act*; but very learned opinions were like- 
wise expressed on the other side, and very unanswerable arguments 
were advanced in support of these opinions. 

Now, if it has thus been held, even in this country, and consider- 
ing the question solely with reference to British subjects and to 
British interests, that there is now no remedy for the author whose 
work has been pirated save under the statute of Queen Anne ; that, 
on the principles of common law, he cannot now maintain an action 
either of injunction or interdict, or for damages; and that it is much 
more than questionable whether such common-law right ever had 
existence — how can it with justice be said that the American pub- 
lisher, reprinting in America the published work of a British author, 
printed in this country, is, in so doing, guilty of a violation of the 
principles of international law ? Without carrying the argument 
any farther than this, it surely follows that, if there be good grounds 
for doubting the existence of any right of property competent to an 
author over his work, after he has given it to the world by publica- 
tion, on the principle of the common law of England or of Scotland^ 
(and in a late case, decided in the Sheriff Court of Renfrewshire in 
Scotland, it was held that, in Scotland as in England, copyright, or 
the right of property in literary compositions, rests not on common 
law, but on statute alone,) then there can be no ground whatever 
for maintaining that the term piracy, with any strictness of pro- 
priety, can apply to the conduct of the foreign republishers of a 
work brought out in England. At all events, the circumstance that 



320 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

the facts of this matter are as I have shortly detailed them, should 
modify the severity of the strictures with which the subject of 
American reprints have been occasionally discussed. I am not ig- 
norant that, while the law in this country denies and repudiates the 
principle of copyright save under the statute, there are many inge- 
nious arguments that might be adduced to show that the law ought 
not to be as it is. Neither am I unacquainted with many of the 
able pamphlets written to vindicate the existence of a principle of 
copyright apart from the statute. In particular I have perused the 
elegant and eloquent work on the subject, entitled " Present State 
of the Copyright Question,'' from the pen of Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, 
with whose observations it is scarcely possible not to sympathise. 
Eut it is not my province or intention to argue the question : what 
I desired was, to draw attention to the fact that the law in this 
country is as I have above described it ; and to point attention to it 
as a reason why, in considering the question of international copy- 
right with America, I shall not follow the course of characterising a 
refusal of reciprocal legislation on the subject as a denial of a claim 
for justice, or a violation of those principles of equity which are as 
binding upon nations as they are upon men. Let it be granted that, 
if America chooses, she has a right to continue her present course of 
supplying the literary appetite of her increasing population mainly 
by the reprinting of English works, without the consent of the" 
authors who have given them to the world. But her right to do so, 
and the wisdom of her policy in so doing, are two different things : 
and I apprehend there will be but few who will be disposed to de- 
fend the wisdom of that policy, after they have attentively and dis- 
passionately considered the present effects produced by the want of' 
an international copyright, and contrasted these with the conse- 
quences which must necessarily ensue from the introduction of such; 
a measure. 

We have seen that, as regards the question of internal copyright 
in Great Britain, the first legislative act passed for the regulation 
of the subject was the excellent statute of Queen Anne, chap. 19, 
(enacted in 1710,) which gave to the author or proprietor of a 
then previously printed work a copyright for twenty years, and to 
the author of a book not then printed a copyright for fourteen 
years from the date of publication : while, if the author was still 
alive at the expiry of that period, his copyright revived and ex- 
tended for other fourteen years. By another act (54 G-eo. III. 
cap. 156, passed in 1814) the provisions of the statute of Queen 
Anne, and of other relative acts, were reconsidered, and the terms 
for unpublished works was extended to twenty-eight years, and if 
the author survived that term, till his death, and other provisions 
made. These statutes, with certain acts relative to the drama, and 



INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 321 

to public lectures in colleges and universities, comprised what may- 
be called the internal or municipal statutory law of England on the 
subject of the right of property in literary compositions after pub- 
lication, up to the year 1842, when the statute 5 and 6 Vic. cap. 
45, was passed for the ^^ amendment of the law of copyright.^' By 
that enactment, which recites and repeals the two acts of 8 Anne, 
cap. 19, and 54 G-eo. III., cap 156, above referred to, the term of 
continuance of the copyright was somewhat changed. The provi- 
sions in this respect now are, that the copyright shall exist for the 
author's lifetime, and for seven years after his death ; while if 
these two terms — the lifetime and the subsequent seven years- 
expired before the lapse of forty-two years from the first publica- 
tion of the work, then the protective period extends to the whole 
period of forty-two years. Other provisions are made with regard 
to the publication of posthumous works, and also relative to the 
conditions upon which the right is to be secured, for which refer- 
ence must be made to the act itself. Upon this statute now rests 
the law of copyright in reference to the writings of British authors 
first published within the limits of Britain's own extensive domi- 
nions. 

By the statute 1 and 2 Yic. cap. 59, an attempt was made by 
this country to establish an international copyright, by providing 
that her Majesty may, by an order in council, direct that foreign 
authors, or their " assigns," shall have a copyright in their works 
within her Majesty's dominions. That statute has since been su- 
perceded and amended by the late legislative enactment of 7 and 8 
Vic. cap. 12. The provisions of this act it is unnecessary to no- 
tice more in detail here, (particularly as they must be alluded to 
below,) farther than to say that they carry still farther out the 
general provision of the 1 and 2 Vic. cap. 59, which the latter act 
repeals. 

Thus far of the laws on the statute-book of G-reat Britain on 
this subject of copyright, municipal and international ; and I shall 
have exhausted the short mention of these required for the argu- 
ment in hand, when I state that the law which prevents the im- 
portation into British foreign possessions of the reprints of books 
first '^ composed, written, or printed in the United Kingdom,^' is 
to be found in a place where it might not readily occur to look for 
it — viz., in the statute 8 and 9 Vic. cap. 93, intituled ^^ An Act 
to regulate the Trade of British Possessions abroad," where it forms 
a solitary clause among a multitude of others relating to everything 
but authorship, books, or matters of a literary nature. 

It were out of place to enter here into any elaborate exposition 
of the judicial decisions by which the true meaning of these legis- 
lative enactments thus referred to have been illustrated and de- 



322 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

termined. But as the question of the existence of a copyright in 
foreign publications, irrespective of the international act, has of 
late years been the subject of much and learned argument in this 
country, while the decisions which that discussion have evoked are 
not at first sight very consistent with each other, perspicuity seems 
to require a brief notice of the most prominent of the judgments, 
and of some of the principles which they may be held to have 
settled. The older cases of Miller v. Taylor, and Donaldson v. 
Beckett, have been already referred to. These may be regarded 
as settling the principles of municipal copyright in this country, 
and as deciding that it now entirely rested on statutory law. As 
regards copyright in foreign compositions, in Chappell v. Purdey, 
(^English Juristj vol. ix., p. 495,) it was decided in the Court of 
Exchequer that where a work was first published abroad, and by a 
foreign author, such author could not afterwards acquire any copy- 
right in this country under the statute 8 Anne, cap. 19, and 54 
Geo. III. cap. 156. But by a subsequent decision of the Court of 
Common Pleas, in Cocks v. Purdey, (12 Jurist, 677,) it was ruled 
that a foreigner the native of a country in amity with Great Bri- 
tain, the author of a work composed abroad, which was published 
simultaneousli/ in England and on the Continent, had a copyright 
in the work. This judgment was afterwards followed by the Court 
of Queen's Bench in the case of Boosay v. Davidson, (13 Jur. 678,) 
wherein it was found, on this point, that there is copyright in this 
country for the works of a foreigner published in this country 
without having been before jiublished abroad. 

On the faith of the train of decisions of which those above men- 
tioned are the leading and the most important ones, it was at one 
time held that, even under what may be called the municipal 
copyright acts of Great Britain, a foreigner, the native of a coun- 
try enjoying peaceful relations with England, (in the language of 
the law books, an " alien friend,^^) might, by himself or his Eng- 
lish assignee, secure the benefit of a copyright in this country, 
provided always he did not first publish abroad. In this way a 
very liberal interpretation was given to the copyright law of Eng- 
land, The obvious effect was, that if the foreigner was a native 
of a country which recognised a copyright within its own dominions, 
he might by simultaneous publication, (^. e. publication in both 
countries, not at the same hour, but in any part of the same day; 
for it was found that the legal rule here is de minimis non curat 
lex,') secure a copyright in both countries. But on an attentive 
perusal of the whole decisions, ending with the case of Boosay v. 
Davidson, it will appear that the question of the applicability of 
the statutes of 8 Anne, cap 19, and 54 Geo. III. cap. 156, to the 
writings of foreigners, was not fully brought up or discussed. At 



INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 323 

all events, in the subsequent and very recent case of Boosay v. 
Purdey, (13 Jur. p. 918,) the Court of Exchequer, upon a careful 
review of the whole authorities, and a very elaborate argument 
upon all the statutory provisions, determined and decided that " a 
foreign author or his assigns " are not parties within the meaning, 
and cannot have the benefit of the statutes 8 Anne, cap. 19, and 
64 Greo. III. cap. 156, as those acts were intended for the encour- 
agement of British talent and industry, by giving to authors who 
are British subjects, either by birth or residence, or their assigns, 
a monopoly in their literary works, dating from the period of their 
first publication here. 

It is by the writer believed to be the opinion of most lawyers in 
this country, who have devoted any measure of attention to this 
important subject, that the decision last above-mentioned is un- 
doubtedly a sound one, as embodying a correct view of the statutes 
which it interprets. Further, in the present state of the copy- 
right law of other countries, and of America in particular, it is 
satisfactory that our law stands as has thus been held. If the 
judgment destroys a preconception that the copyright law of Eng- 
land is based upon principles of extreme liberality towards for- 
eigners or their assignees, it at all events places the matter on a 
much clearer, more consistent, and more definite footing, than it 
seemed to rest on under the operation of the decisions by which 
Boosay's case had been preceded. 

It may thus be regarded as settled law that, save under the ex- 
isting international copyright act, 7 and 8 Victoria, cap. 12, (and 
the statutes made mention of in it,) there can be no copyright in 
this country for the untranslated writings of a foreign author. 
But that valuable act is sufiiciently liberal ; and, in pointing at a 
spirit of national reciprocity on this important subject, it does all 
that can be done, consistently with a due attention on the part of 
Great Britain to the rights and interests of the numerous and 
valuable class of men who compose her own literary school. By 
that statute, the Queen is empowered by an order in council to 
authorize a copyright in the works of foreigners ; and, after due 
and full provision as to the conditions of the order and of the 
grant, an enactment is made in section 19, which points out both 
the object and the extent of the whole statute. It is there pro- 
vided that '^ neither the author of any book, nor the author or 
composer of any dramatic piece or musical composition, nor the 
inventor, designer, or engraver of any print, nor the maker of any 
article of sculpture or other work of art as aforesaid, which, after 
the passing of this act, may be first published out of her Majesty's 
dominions, shall have any copyright therein, or any exclusive right 



324 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

to the representation or performance thereof, otherwise than such- 
(if any) as he may become entitled to under this act." 

After this rapid sketch on the present state of the law of copy- 
right in literary productions in Grreat Britain, let us now, as shortly, 
notice the present position of that law among our transatlantic 
friends in the American republic. 

In the United States of America, there is no international copy- 
right law whatever ; and the internal or municipal copyright is 
regulated by an act of Congress of 3d February 1831, in which 
the provisions, with regard to works first published in America, 
are very much the same with the earlier law of this country as 
embraced in the statute of Queen Anne extended by the subse- 
quent act of 54 Greorge III. cap. 156, with regard to books brought 
out in Grreat Britain. The right is granted to citizens or resi- 
dents, and is given for twenty-eight years, with an extension of 
fourteen years if either the author or his wife or children survive 
the term of the original grant. By section 8 of this act, it is 
expressly declared <'that nothing in this act shall be construed 
to extend to prohibit the importation or vending, printing or pub- 
lishing, of any map, chart, book, musical composition, print or en- 
graving, written, composed, or made by any person not being a 
citizen of the United States, nor (or) resident within the jurisdic- 
tion thereof;" and the next section limits the protection of unpub- 
lished manuscripts in the same manner. 

Contrasting the two systems, it will be at once seen that the 
main distinction between them consists in these particulars : that, 
while in Grreat Britain it is essential to copyright that there has 
been no prior publication elsewhere, in the United States of Ame- 
rica that requisite is not included. But second, while in this 
country there is provision for giving to a foreign author— the na- 
tive or inhabitant of a country which recognises a reciprocity of 
legislation with Great Britain on this subject — a copyright in his 
work in this country, there is no such provision in United States 
law. Had the latter country adopted the cosmopolitan policy of 
England, (which is leading the way in this as in everything else,) 
the copyright of new works might be secured to authors in both 
countries ; but the stipulation of ^^ citizenship, or residence within 
the dominions of the United States at the time of publication," is 
of course a fatal barrier to any such attempt. As a British sub- 
ject, I am thankful when I say that the barrier is not of English, 
but of American formation. 

Thus, at present, stands the law of these two countries in rela- 
tion to this subject. There is nothing to prevent the works of 
British authors, printed in England, being reprinted and sold in 



INTERNATIONAL ^COPYRIGHT. 325 

America without their consent ; neither is there anything to pre- 
vent the works of American authors^ published in America, from 
being reprinted and sold in England, without the consent of such 
American author being obtained or even asked. An author pub- 
lishing in either country has no way of securing to himself any 
benefit from the sale of his work in the other, save by some such 
ruse as that of bringing out, in addition to his original work, an 
edition with such notes as may, through the medium of a third 
party, be the subject of copyright in the other country ; or, by 
the mode often adopted in the United States by the English mag- 
azines, of introducing into some of the numbers during the year 
articles from the pens of American writers, which articles, being 
previously made the subject of copyright in America, cannot be 
reprinted by any one there, save with the proprietor's consent."^ 

But while the laws of the two countries thus operate in the same 
way against the interests of the literary men of both, there is this 
substantial distinction between the two — one in which the liberality 
of the mother country contrasts favourably with the more exclusive 
policy of her gigantic oiFshoot — Great Britian offers a reciprocity 
of privilege, and it is America that refuses it. England says, give 
my literary children an equal privilege in your territories, and I 
have already passed an act under which I will give your authors 
copyright privileges throughout my dominions. But the United 
States refuses to listen to the proposal, and by her provision of 
^' citizenship or residence," limits her copyright to the authors be- 
longing to, or living on, her own soil. 

Now, among the effects that would be produced by an interna- 
tional law of copyright between the two countries — or, to speak 
more accurately, among the beneficial results that would arise were 
America agreeing to reciprocate the liberal policy of Great Britain 
on this subject, the following are palpable and beyond question : — 

Such reciprocity would secure to the authors of both countries 
a much larger field for profit, as well as fame ; and, while the wri- 
ters of both would be thereby benefited, the larger share of the 
advantage would be to the literary men of America. To them 
there would be immediately opened up profitable access to a popu- 
lation of some forty millions of people, exclusive of the whole 
vast colonial empire of Great Britain ; while the similar addition 
made to the field for the Englishman's operations would be some- 

* I was told, in Boston, that the proprietors of Blachwood had the merit of striking 
out this most legitimate mode of countermining the attempts made to deprive them 
of the profits ai'ising from the very extensive sale of their popular periodical in the 
United States of America. By securing the services of literary men of the American 
Confederation, and resident therein, they have not only added to their staff, but 
secured themselves against reprints in the United States— save with their own 
consent. 

28 



326 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

where about one moiety of the number above named. Than the 
literary men of a nation, there is surely no class 0f persons who 
more deserve that attention should be paid to their interests in the 
general legislation. They are no doubt a comparatively small 
body, and therefore it is that their voice is so little heard, even in 
matters in which they are especially concerned. But let not our 
American friends forget that it was the remark of one of their own 
earlier Grovernors — an observation of the first Governor of Massa- 
chusetts (Winthrop) — that ''the best part of a community is 
always the least, and of this least part the wiser is always the less'' 
— a remark which deserves special remembrance, not only in 
America, but everywhere else. 

While, however, it would conserve and promote the literary in- 
terests of both countries that America reciprocated the international 
policy of Great Britain on this subject, it is most especially for the 
interest and consequent advancement of her own literary school 
that she should do so. Compared with that of England, the 
literary school of the United States is yet in its infancy. No doubt 
in this, as in other respects, the republic is making rapid pro- 
gress ; and when adorned with such names as Sigourney, Irving, 
Bancroft, Prescott, Longfellow, Bryant, Story, Kent, Greenleaf, 
and Hoffman, it were absurd to question the right of America to 
take a high position in the world of letters. But still, as con- 
trasted with England, most of her national literary laurels have 
yet to be gathered ; and what can more tend to retard her in this 
career than placing her literary men at a disadvantage as regards 
the remunerative character of their productions ? Exposed as he 
is to the competition of another publisher, who reprints an English 
work of a kindred nature, without paying its author a single six- 
pence out of the profits derived from its sale, how can the publisher 
who purchases the manuscript of an American author afford to 
give a fair or reasonable price for the objoct of his acquisition ? 
That authors of distinction do not, in general, write from motives 
of gain has nothing to do with the question. If it had, it might 
be worth while to stop, to point out the host of facts that are on 
record which lead to a somewhat different conclusion ; but this, at 
all events, must be conceded — that the supply of literary produc- 
tions, and the number of men who will devote themselves to 
literary pursuits in any country, will ever be more or less influenced 
by the value placed on them, as evinced by the remuneration given 
them for their labours. Most of the men of distinguished literary 
name in America follow other professions or callings, or are en- 
gaged in diplomatic life. The classic and elegant Longfellow is 
Professor of Modern Literature in Harvard College — Bryant is 
editor of a newspaper in New York — the United States' historian 



INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 327 

Bancroft was sent by the cabinet of the United States to this 
country — Washington Irving went as minister of the United 
States to Spain ; and the same remark may be made with reference 
to various others of the great names of the literary republic of 
America. How far this sinking of the literary in the professional 
and diplomatic character has originated in the non-remunerating 
nature of literary labour, I dfp not pretend to say ; but, in saying 
that it has much to do with it, I only state the opinion I have my- 
self formed, and one which is very generally entertained in the 
United States themselves. I find no fault with the fact. That the 
field of diplomatic life should be open to the ambition of literary 
men augurs favourably for a nation. Nay, more ; because men 
are actively engaged in the discharge of the duties of professional 
or official life, it does not therefore necessarily follow that they 
have the less inclination, or, apparently, the less time for the 
prosecution of literary pursuits. Of this we have many remarka- 
ble instances. In addition to the American ones I have before 
mentioned, we have numerous men in Great Britain who may be 
referred to by way of illustration. Henry (Lord) Brougham wrote 
the numerous works, treatises, essays, lives, histories, and disserta- 
tions, which remain a record of the versatility as well as of the 
vigour of his powerful mind, while in the discharge of the duties 
of an arduous profession, and engaged in the turmoil of political 
life, or after he had commenced the herculean task of disposing of 
the arrears of business in the Court of Chancery of England; 
Francis Jeffrey found time to produce the numerous papers which 
adorn the pages of the Edinhurgh Review, while engaged in the 
very vortex of his profession as a lawyer — in which profession he 
occupied the very highest position ', Professor Wilson, the world- 
renowned Christopher North of Blackwood, wrote his various poems 
and novels, in addition to all his numerous and noble contributions 
to the magazine he so long edited, while discharging the duties of 
the professional chair ; and to add yet another instance, the his- 
torian of Europe, Alison, has not only found time to write the 
greater part of his great work, but to write many other works, 
besides numerous and erudite contributions to the periodical litera- 
ture of the day, while occupying the situation of judge-ordinary, 
both in civil and criminal matters, in the most populous county — 
in which is the most populous city — in Scotland.* 

* It will give the reader a more graphic idea of the amount of official and judicial 
duty, ably and satisfactorily discharged by this eminent and popular author, and 
the "zealous discharge of which has not prevented the production of the many works 
of ability and research which immortalise his name, to peruse the following quo- 
tation from a speech of \Vc. (now Lord) Brougham, delivered in the House of Com- 
mons on the 29th April 1S30, in which he thus makes mention of the amount of 
judicial business transacted in the ckil court, of which Mr. Alison is the judge; — 



328 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

Similar examples might be multiplied, but they only prove that pro- 
fessional, official, or even judicial duty does not necessarily debar from 
literary labour. They furnish no reason why men of letters should be 
almost compelled to engage in other, and oft times uncongenial pur- 
suits, because of the insufficiency of the remuneration received from 
their publications. Besides, it is to be questioned whether literature 
will flourish as a separate profession in any country in great vigour, 
unless there be in it a body — a large Dody — of men who make it the 
principal, if not the exclusive business of their lives ; and this can- 
not be reasonably expected to be the case, if the prosecution of it 
leads not to competence, if not to something more. If therefore the 
United States of America would see literature flourish amongst them 
with additional vigour, let their Congress at once pass a law, similar 
in effect to the bill introduced into the United States' Senate in 
1837, by that able, venerable, and accomplished statesman, the Hon. 
Henry Clay, for extending the privilege of the act of 1831 to the 
non-resident subjects of Great Britain and of France in respect of 
future publications. The result of such a measure would be at once 
seen in the renewed impetus it would give to American literature 
itself, whatever might be its effects as regards the literature of Engr 
land. 

Another efiect of such a measure on the part of America as that 
now contended for, would be to improve the character of the Eng- 
lish woiks which are generally sold at public places — at railway 
stations — on board steamboats — and in hotels, in and throughout the 
United States. Who, that has travelled in the American Union, 
has not been struck with the inferior, trashy, if not immoral character 
and tendency of the majority of the cheap publications that are ten- 
dered for his acceptance at such places as have been indicated? 
Nearly all of these publications are reprints of books published in 
England, and the works of our inferior novelists, productions replete 
with the marvellous, or with details taken wholesale from the crimi- 
nal records — books which profess to give the minutiae of what is 
called European fashionable life, for the gratification of a morbid 
taste or desire to pry into its secret details; but which carry false- 
hood on the very face of them — reprints of English translations of 
demoralising books originally brought out in France — and which are 
the more calculated to do mischief in that they make a parade of 
exhibiting the pleasantness of vice, only that they may afterwards 
show that the end was destruction. I appeal to every candid 
American if such be not a fair and disinterested description of the 

I' Taking the number of cases, and the value of property involved in them, brougl t 
in the county court of Lanarkshire, which includes Glasgow, it will be found that 
h ilf a million's worth is adjudicated on annually by that court." If such was the 
state of maters twenty years ago, the amount, as well as the importance of the 
business, has more than doubled since the above date. 



INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 32^ 

literary food supplied in public places, and public vehicles of travel, 
for the use of the general public in the United States of America. 
When I went over the rivers and railways of America, there was a 
temporary improvement on the general state of matters in this 
respect. The two first volumes of Macaulay's History of England 
had some months before made their appearance from Great Britain, 
and after a very brief space the work had been reprinted in a very 
cheap form ) and it is but fair to say, that I saw many of these re- 
prints, of this great and good work, in the hands of the travelling 
stationers and others, and many of them sold at the very low price 
of seventy-five cents, or about three shillings sterling. But they 
were exposed for sale side by side with such books as The Mysleriei 
of the Criminal Records, Paul de Kock's Paul the Profligate, The 
Great City, et hoc genus omne. Indeed, I refer to this sale of the 
cheap editions of Mr, Macaulay's book the more readily, not merely 
because it is only right to state the whole facts, but because in a 
conversation I had with an intelligent statesman in America on this 
subject of international copyright, he pointed to the rapid and ex- 
tensive sale of such a book as Mr. Macaulay's History of England, 
as one of the advantages secured to his country by the non-existence 
of such a copyright law. Now, even were it so — even did the refusal 
of reciprocity in protection, by way of copyright, lead to the cheap- 
ening of English books of an improving character, and consequently 
to their being more read by the great mass of the people, it were 
easy to show that the advantage is gained at the too costly price of 
doing injustice to the great body of American literary men, retarding 
and repressing America in her literary career, and leading to an in- 
undation of cheap books of the most demoralising character. But 
it is not so. Ere I close these few observations on this subject, I 
will show that the cheapness of books might be secured in America, 
without involving any denial of the reciprocity for which I contend : 
meanwhile, the object is to prove that one of the efi"ects of such a 
denial is the overwhelming number of cheap publications, of an 
inferior and injurious character, which find their way into the hands 
of the general body of the people, to the exclusion of the better 
works. If theft it be, (as some argue,) it is a theft of trash. The 
reason of this is very obvious. If a publisher could not reprint an 
English work without some previous arrangement with the author of 
it, such publisher would take care that he did not put himself to 
the expense of printing and publishing anything that would not 
stand the test of time and examination ; and however the taste of 
the vicious part of the public may throw the tendency at first, the 
taste of the general body of a people is sure to come right at last. 
Silly, immoral, impure works may find a degree of popularity for a 
tin»e, but in a short space they are sure to become unsaleable. But 

28* 



330 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

as cheapness and novelty are (as matters at present 'stand) the main 
consideration in the United States, and as the publisher of an Eng- 
lish reprint pays nothing for the right to do so, all he cares for is to 
print just so many copies of a work as will take immediately, with- 
out reference to its inherent merits, or the probable continuance of 
its popularity, — as many as he can rapidly dispose of before a rival 
can interfere with a reprint, to deprive him of part of his sales. 
Were the publisher secured in his possession by a copyright, he 
would be more careful in his selection of the work to be reprinted, 
and more regardful of the probability of its finding acceptance with 
the moral and reflecting, who compose, I rejoice to think, a large 
proportion of the American nation. 

Another effect of such an international copyright — and the last I 
will trouble the reader with for the present — would be to equalize 
the price of standard works in both countries ; and, on the whole, 
also to cheapen such works in both. Here we touch on the kind of 
argument which is in general used as a reason for America's refusal, 
to reciprocate with England in an international law. It is supposed,- 
and said, that the effect would be to enhance the prices of English 
books in America, and thus place them beyond the reach of many 
of the industrious classes. This is a misconception of the probable 
effects. Whether, even were the result to be a slight or even a con- 
siderable enhancement in the price of the works of British authors in 
the Union, the American statesmen are acting wisely in refusing 
reciprocity — whether they do right in sustaining a state of things 
which makes Macaulay, Alison, and Tytler, Hemans, Wordsworth, 
and Moore, Dickens, Wilson, and Bulwer, so cheap, that their very 
cheapness offers an inducement for the American public to read them 
in preference to Sigourney, Longfellow, and Bryant, Bancroft, 
Everett, and Prescott, Irving, Cooper, and Dana, admits of very 
grave questioning. But they do not, by so sustaining the question- 
able system, get even the supposed advantage. It is not America's 
denial of international copyright that has cheapened and is cheapen- 
ing books, but it is America's denial of international copyright that 
has produced all the injurious consequences to America herself that 
have been already pointed out. 

Other causes than the supposed one have contributed to the lessen- 
ing of the price of literary productions, not only in America, but in 
England. In both countries they have been coming down in price 
for some years past, and they are now in general published and sold 
at prices so low as to place the best works within the reach of the 
general body of readers. If, as a rule, books are now much lower 
in price in the United States than they are in Great Britain, the 
observation applies chiefly, if not alone, to the reprints of British 
authors — reprints which are ofttimes brought out with a degree of 



INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 331 

inaccuracy of type, inelegance of form and of printing, and insuffi- 
ciency of binding, which makes them truly dearer, at the cheap 
price, than editions printed and published with greater care would 
be at the high one. This is another of the effects of the want of a 
system of international copyright, between these two kindred nations, 
of which I would say a few words ere I conclude ; meanwhile the 
question is as to the legitimate causes which have so much lessened 
the price of literary productions of late years. 

Of these it will be sufficient here to mention these two — the fall- 
ing in of copyright books by the expiry of the term of protection, 
and the increase in the numbers of the reading public. The first of 
these, although important, is of such second-rate influence compared 
with the last, that it may be passed over without further remark. 
The main cause of the diminished price of books is the increase in 
the number of readers, and that authors and publishers have found 
from experience, that here, as in everything else, an enhanced price 
produces a diminished demand. Proprietors of copyright books do 
not now wait the expiry of the term of protection before publishing 
editions at a price so cheap as to put them within the reach of the 
general public. Of this the instances are so numerous that the diffi- 
culty is in selection. To take the latest I have observed, most of 
the popular novels of Mr. James, and of the equally popular histori- 
cal romances of Mr. Ainsworth, most of which were within the last 
few years published at the price of £1 lis. 6d. each, are even now, 
in the lifetime of the authors, and during the subsistence of the copy- 
right, publishing in London in volumes each containing a complete 
novel or romance, printed on good paper, with a good clear type, 
neatly got up, and not in columns, at the price of one shilling. Simi- 
lar instances will present themselves to every reader, illustrative of 
the fact that the effect of a copyright in keeping up the price of books 
of general acceptability has been greatly over-estimated. In short, 
the price at which the works of our best authors are now usually 
published, or republished, seems to be very much regulated by the 
number of the class of readers to whom they are addressed or adapted, 
or who may be likely to peruse them. Works on law, medicine, or 
abstract science, or curious and erudite dissertations on philology and 
suchlike abstruse subjects, are dear — not from anything in the diffi- 
culty or expense of publication, but from the limited number of the 
parties to whom they are more immediately addressed. Works on 
theology are comparatively cheap, because there is in this country a 
numerous class by whom they are purchased, if not perused ; and 
books of fiction and light literature are generally cheapest of all, 
because such works find numerous readers among all classes of the 
community. 

And what, then, might not be expected to arise from the intro- 



332 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 

duction of an international reciprocity system on this subject? 
Were American authors protected in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land, and our numerous colonies, and were British authors pro- 
tected in the United States of America, the number of readers 
would be vastly increased to both ', the authors would be protected 
from a most undesirable competition ; the general price would be 
reduced, because more books would be sold ; and only better and 
more accurate editions would find their way before the public. 
And, let our American friends ponder this, the advantage in all 
these respects would greatly preponderate on their side. The field 
opened up to the American author would be increased in a greater 
ratio than that opened up to the British one. The undesirable 
competition which exists at present tells far more against him than 
it does against the literary men of England. It is in America, not 
in.England, that the great complaint is made of works being thrust 
before the public with a haste and carelessness which is inconsist- 
ent with accuracy : a fact which is powerfully illustrated by this, 
that some of the first booksellers of New York, Boston, and Phila- 
delphia, sell many copies of English editions of English books, in- 
asmuch as American gentlemen, making additions to their libraries, 
often prefer paying the English price for the accurately printed 
and strongly bound imported work, rather than the much smaller 
price for the hastily got up and loosely put together copy of the 
reprinted book. In one of the most extensive publishers in the 
city of Boston, I was assured of this fact ; and it was corroborated 
by the number of imported books I saw in the premises ; and con- 
firmed by a sale, in my presence, of an English copy of the two 
first volumes of Mr. Macaulay's great work, at the English price 
of 16s. per volume, although an American reprint of the book, of 
as much apparent neatness and largeness of type, and excellence 
of paper, lay alongside of it, marked at a price of only one-third 
the abovenamed sum. 

The introduction of Mr. Clay's bill of 1837, and the support it 
received, shows that there is a class of men in America favourable 
to this literary reciprocity of legislation between the two countries 
— a class which is both intelligent and influential. It is to be 
hoped that their numbers and their influence will increase ; and 
that, aided by the pens of those to be chiefly benefited, their efforts 
will eventuate in the production of legislative enactments which 
will treat authors as they deserve to be treated — not as members 
of this or of that country, or as citizens of this or of that commu- 
nity — but as cosmopolitans, as benefactors of their race, and candi- 
dates for the plaudits of the whole family of mankind. Ashe 
peruses the immortal productions of their genius and patient re- 
search ; as he appropriates to . himself their observations or their 



EMIGRATION. 333 

creations^ or as he proceeds to furnish his mind from their works 
with thoughts, and to people his brain with never-dying and ever- 
delightful memories and associations, who thinks or who cares 
what country may have given birth to a Shakspeare, a Byron, a 
Campbell, or a Scott ? The country whence they sprung is proud 
of them, and well she may ; but they wrote not alone for her, or 
scarcely even more for her than for the rest of the world. Their 
name and their fame is heard over all the earth. Wherever there 
exists a mind that can appreciate talent, or a heart that can respond 
to the touch of genius, to that spot did they address themselves ; 
and of that spot, wherever it may be, such men may be considered 
the adopted children. And as I hope it is with the departed as 
well as with the living authors of Grreat Britain in America, so I 
know it is in Great Britain with the literary men of the Bepublic. 
Who cares to consider, as he peruses the works of the American 
Hemans — Mrs. Sigourney — or of the graceful, elegant, and able 
Longfellow, or the vigorous and energetic Bryant, whether the 
authors of such works are English or American — ^whether they 
were born and educated in Boston in England, or in its greater 
name-child, Boston in the States ? 

The only legislation that were fitted for the question of interna- 
tional copyright, is one based upon the above principles — one 
which recognizes, in all its length and breadth, the cosmopolitan 
nature of literary claims — one, in short, which acknowledges wis- 
dom in the motto prefixed to this chapter, and sympathizes with 
the feelings set forth in its kindred verse, — 

" Where'er the human heart doth wear 

Joy's myrtle-wreath or sorrow's gyves ; 

Where'er a human spirit strives 
After a life more true and fair, 
There is the true man's birth-place grand, 
His is the world-wide fatherland." 

There is one other subject on which I would desire to say a few 
words, ere bringing to a conclusion this narrative of impressions 
and experiences connected with a visit to the United States of 
America, and that subject is the question of 

EMIGRATION, 

and the advantages or disadvantages attaching to the great North 
American continent as a place to which Europeans, and especially 
my own fellow-countrymen, may convey those thews, sinews, and 
other appliances, or that knowledge, science, and capital, which 
have proved insufficient for their comfortable maintenance in the 
midst of the greater competition and elbowing of their native land. 



334 EMIGRATION. 

Emigration from Europe is likely to become one of the leading 1 
questions of the day ; and without disputing — nay, on the contrary, | 
admitting — the great claims, capacities, and advantages held out;j 
by the vast continent of Australasia, as a field for the able and the 1 
enterprising, it is hoped that the following remarks on emigration 
to America may prove of some use to those persons whom connex- 
ion, vicinity, or other ground of preference, may induce to go there, 
rather than to the more distant British dependencies of New South 
Wales or JSTew Zealand. 

Never having visited the vast possessions of England in the 
Indian or South Pacific Ocean, I am, as a matter of course, quite 
incompetent to institute any comparison between them and the 
American continent, in regard to the inducements they respectively 
hold out to intending emigrants. In offering the following sugges- 
tions, therefore, it is very far from my intention to persuade any 
one to prefer North America to Australasia. Neither is it my 
intention to make any direct comparison between the United States 
of America and the noble, varied, and extensive colonial posses- 
sions of Grreat Britain on the American continent, as places of 
location for parties from this country seeking a home on the other 
side of the Atlantic. Such tasks are too extensive to be introduced 
at the close of a work of this nature. Were I to adventure on 
such comparative views at all, I fear my feelings of patriotism 
would give a strong bias to my reasoning. As a general rule, I 
think it most desirable, and most worthy the attention of the 
G-overnment of this country, that everything possible should be 
done to direct the torrent of emigration, which has for many years 
been going on and increasing, towards the shores of our own valu- 
able colonies; and, inasmuch as the vast majority of voluntary 
emigrants are influenced in their choice of the place to which they 
emigrate, chiefly, if not solely, by ties of a hereditary or family 
nature, the plain course would be to give direction and impetus, by 
making public grants to aid in conveying bodies of emigrants from 
particular localities of the mother country, and for settling them 
in circumstances of sufficient comfort on public lands in the colony. 
Such an arrangement might be accompanied by provision for the 
repayment of the loan or grant, or of part of it, by small annual 
instalments out of the profit of the reclaimed lands. The nucleus 
thus formed, the hereditary and family ties already spoken of might 
safely be left to work out the rest. 

This is an interesting and important subject, but it is not my 
intention to follow it farther for the present, having made mention 
of it simply to show that in the following remarks I do not profess 
to enter upon, much less to discuss, the general question of emi- 
gration. My object is merely to note down a few remarks as the 



EMIGRATION. 335 

results of personal inquiry and observation — remarks which may 
prove of service to persons who may contemplate emigrating, and 
who may have determined on America as the scene to which they 
will remove themselves. 

Believing that emigration has its origin in natural causes which 
no legislation can effectually control^ and believing also that any 
legislative measures designed to restrain it would be unjust and 
unwise, even if they could accomplish the object aimed at, I think 
the wisest course is to direct and not to retard, and that the best 
direction is to circulate information on the subject of American 
emigration, both to the colonies and to the States. 

The intending emigrant to America should, in the first place, 
make himself well acquainted with the nature of the climate of 
that portion of the British possessions, or of the Republic, to 
which he may think of directing his steps. On this subject there 
is great misconception prevalent. The Southern States of the 
Union, such as Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia, 
are neither so hot nor so unhealthy as they are generally supposed 
to be ; neither are the extreme Northern States, or the Canadas, or 
New Brunswick, or Nova Scotia, so cold as they are usually sup- 
posed to be. As regards the former, while parts of them are too 
hot and too unhealthy to be comfortable or desirable locations for 
a European, yet other parts of them, among the hill-country and 
villages of the western portions, enjoy a temperate climate, which 
is not merely consistent with, but also conducive to, comfort and 
longevity. "While as regards the latter, it may be safely laid down 
as a general truth that, though the winters are somewhat colder 
than they are in Great Britain, they are also much drier ; and 
while they do not exceed, even in Nova Scotia, an average of four 
months' duration, the spring and summer are characterized by a 
luxuriance and rapidity of vegetation which adapts the north par- 
ticularly to agricultural pursuits. Moreover, the chief cities of 
Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, &c., are all to the south of 
Great Britain. 

There are thus, at all events, very great variations of climate in 
the North American continent, from an almost tropical heat to a 
great intensity of cold; and these varieties are not to be judged of 
simply by a knowledge of the latitude and longitude of the parti- 
cular places : therefore the emigrant should carefully acquaint 
himself, through channels on which he can rely, regarding the 
particulars of the climate of his contemplated location, ere he 
leaves his native country. 

After climate, the selection of soil is the next matter to be 
attended to. Here the choice is so great as to be very puzzling. 
In the United States, the price of the Government lands is one 



336 EMIGRATION. 

dollar and a quarter an acre. But these lands lie chiefly in the 
newly-settled states ; and I found it to be the generally expressed 
opinion of intelligent AmericanSj that the emigrant from Europe 
would find it more to his advantage to secure lands in some of the 
older states, even though he should do so by the payment of a 
considerably enhanced price. If the lands in the new states are 
lower, there are disadvantages in the thinness of the.population, 
and in the want of roads and markets ; while in the older states, 
if the price of land be higher, there are great advantages in suffi- 
ciency of labour and means of transit. Besides, the price of land 
in the older settlements is not very much higher than it is in the 
new — at least if favourable opportunities of purchase be watched 
and taken advantage of. In 1849, while the California mania was 
in the height of its fervour, and even at a later date, lands were to 
be had in North America, in localities where the roads were good, 
the markets accessible, and the institutions of the country, with all 
the appliances for comfort and even luxury, in a forward state, at 
very moderate prices — such prices as two, three, or four dollars per 
acre, according to the comparative advantages of location. More- 
over, the purchase of lands in such localities makes the change of 
country less felt than when it is to a remoter, ruder, and newer 
scene ; and there are always plenty of persons to be found who, 
from a variety of causes, are disposed to sell their established par- 
tially-cleared farms, and either depart to the south in search of 
gold, or go farther onwards to clear for themselves a new home on 
the outer extremity of civilized life, as the pioneers of advancing 
civilization. 

The above remarks on locality have more peculiar application to 
the United States; but they apply also to the British possessions in 
North America. In these colonies also it is true that the emigrant 
often commits the mistake of choosing a lonely location, in a part of 
the country comparatively unsettled, when a very little more of 
original expenditure would secure him better land^ in a settled com- 
munity, and with ready access to markets. 

Having formed his resolution regarding climate and soil, let the 
emigrant look well to the sufficiency of the title he may get to any 
land he may invest a part of his money in purchasing. In the 
British possessions this is easy enough ; and I have great pleasure in 
saying, on the information of many professional friends in the United 
States, that if the matter be properly gone about, it is there as easy. 
There is an error generally prevalent on this subject in Great Brtain. 
Land titles in the American Union are not environed with more diffi- 
culties than they are in this country. There is no reason they should 
be so; inasmuch as American lawyers, as a body, are abundantly 
acute and able, and, I have much pleasure in adding, highly honour- 



EMIGRATION. 337 

able likewise. Moreover, the record system is universal in the Unit- 
ed States ; and the very fact that land is plentiful and cheap lessens 
one of the difficulties in settling boundaries. 

There are some other considerations that might be suggested as 
requiring the attention of the emigrant contemplating the continent 
of North America as the scene of his future home. These would be 
specified and commented on, were this brief dissertation intended to 
be a full disquisition on the subject. What has been written is, 
however, sufficient for the purpose in view, which was to direct atten- 
tion to the difficulties in the way of emigrants, particularly the 
poorer class of them, getting that accurate information before leaving 
home, which is so necessary and so desirable ; and to the advantage 
likely to accrue from the establishment of a proper association for 
their assistance and protection — not merely up to the hour of their 
arrival on the shores of the country of their adoption, but when 
proceeding, after reaching that land, to the particular location forwhich 
they are destined. He who has seen the condition of numbers of 
the poorer class of emigrants, when passing up the rivers either to 
the North or the South of the American continent, (either up the 
St. Lawrence or up the Mississippi,) on their way to their destina- 
tion, will appreciate these remarks without further illustration. 
Having left their native country with but little information as to 
the place for which they are destined, save that it is in America, and 
that they have relations or connexions there — after having been par- 
tially robbed of their little all at the seaport of their embarkation — • 
after having also been misled into taking a circuitous and expensive 
route to their future home — it frequently happens that these poor 
people arrive at an American seaport, to be again partially plundered, 
and put to much unnecessary trouble, inconvenience, and expense, 
ere they are permitted to reach the particular locality chosen by 
them as the scene of their voluntary exile. The perishing of thou- 
sands of such emigrants by the way adds a feature of deep melan- 
choly to the scenes thus feebly pointed at. Some of the notes in 
which these remarks originated were written when sailing on the 
Mississippi, in May 1849, during which month nearly every steamer 
that went up that mighty and muddy river, with emigrants, lost a 
large portion of its living freight through the ravages of cholera, 
and the total unpreparedness of the poor people as regards every 
thing calculated to aid the constitution in resisting attack. Part of 
them were also taken when sailing up the St. Lawrence, from Que- 
bec to Montreal, in the same year, with a steamer which had on 
board of it a number of emigrants, the remains saved from certain 
shipfuls that had sailed from Ireland and Scotland, but had suffered 
shipwreck in the ice. There was no cholera or other epidemic raging 
amongst these last, but it was melancholy to find, on getting into 

29 



338 EMIGRATION. 

conversation witli tliem, how ill-defined were their ideas, and how 
vague were their hopes. Few of them knew anything at all of the 
peculiarities of the part of Canada, &c., they had selected for their 
future home, and many of them did not even know in what direction 
it lay. 

Now all this sufiering might be saved, were an association formed, 
established on proper principles, and presided over by men of influ- 
ence and character, (to give a public guarantee for its integrity,) 
both in Great Britain, in her colonial possessions, and in the United 
States — an association whose officers might obtain and circulate all 
necessary information, and take charge of the emigrants, both ere 
they leave this country, and after they arrive on the distant shore. 
It is not my intention here to point out what should or might be 
the constitution of such an association ; but it is candid that I add, 
that the idea of protecting the emigrant from spoliation, by means 
of the organisation of an emigration company, while it had its origin 
in conversations with men of influence and information on the other 
side of the Atlantic, has been greatly confirmed by considering the 
constitution of the Universal Land and Emigration Association, 
formed in London, with branches in America and elsewhere — an as- 
sociation to which I wish every measure of success, being satisfied 
that its objects are philanthropic, and its basis sound; and knowing 
that, even did its beneficial operations extend no further than to the 
protection of the emigrant up to the period of his arrival at the place 
of his choice, the amount of good to be eff'ected would be unques- 
tionably great. An attractive feature of this association, (but one 
not peculiar to it, though only of late introduction in aid of emigra- 
tion,) is an application of the principle of life insurance. Under the 
operation of this principle, the emigrant who is unable to purchase 
the land which he designs to cultivate may lease it for life, at the 
same time insuring his life for a sum equivalent to the value of the 
fee-simple. Thereafter, an annual payment of the premium of insu- 
rance, and of the small annual rent of the land, secures him the 
possession during his lifetime; while, at his death, the property de- 
scends to his heirs, or follows the disposition he may himself have 
made of it, free and unencumbered, the Association being protected 
from loss by means of the life-policy originally taken out. 

It is not for a work like this either to discuss the general question 
of the necessity and expediency of emigration from Europe, or to 
follow out the various modes in which systems of emigration may be 
originated and carried on, of a nature, and in a manner, which will 
conserve both the comfort of the emigrant and the profit of the capi- 
talist; but there are a few broad facts on the subject which demon- 
strate the importance of the adoption of proper measures for the 
regulation of the emigration. Of these the greatest is, that, even 



EMIGRATION. 339 

while we speculate on its necessity or expediency, it is going on and 
increasing. Even while we debate the question of whether any 
withdrawal of labour from the markets of Europe is requisite or 
desirable, multitudes are deciding that question for themselves, and 
crossing the ocean, many of them literally in search of a new home. 
Nay, more, the numbers of those that do so are increasing. In 
1846, the total number of emigrants from G-reat Britain was 
129,851; in 1847, it rose to 258,270; while, in 1848, it was 
248,089. The mass of these emigrants have gone to the continent 
of North America ; and, of those that have gone there, the larger 
number have gone to the States. "With such a fact before us, it is 
obviously no answer to an appeal for the adoption of measures to 
regulate this stream of emigration, (so as to prevent its being attend- 
ed with a sacrifice of life and property,) to say that there is no 
necessity for emigrating at all. Of that the individuals who emi- 
grate should be the best judges ; and it surely augurs a very power- 
ful motive, that whole families, from the gray headed grandsire to 
the young man just entering upon that period of life when hope is 
brightest and love of country strongest, tear themselves from ties of 
home, and embark by shipfuls to seek a distant home across a hither- 
to untried wave. No speculation will getter the better of the argu- 
ment which the fact supplies ; and therefore it is that every friend 
of humanity ought to contemplate with satisfaction any judicious 
measure for conducting emigration in such a way as will prevent its 
being attended with that loss of life, and squandering of property, 
the past existence of which is best known to those who have most 
studied the fortunes of the emigrants, not only up to the date of 
their leaving this country, but up to that of their arrival at the far- 
oif home of their adoption. No doubt it has been by some urged, 
as an argument against concurring in measures for the encourage- 
ment of emigration, by making it more pleasant and more safe, that 
we are thereby aiding in the withdrawal, not of the useless or worth- 
less, but of a very valuable class of the community, and also of much 
capital, which might otherwise be profitably employed or invested at 
home. A little inquiry and reflection destroys much of the force of 
the first branch of this objection; and the same means lead to the 
conclusion that the second is not so sound, in point of fact, as it at 
first sight appears. No doubt, many very valuable members of the 
community do emigrate ; but the fact of their doing so is the best 
evidence of their inability to find profitable development for their 
capabilities at home ; and besides, their departure makes room for 
others, who would not otherwise be able so to employ themselves as 
to add to the general resources of the nation. Exceptional cases 
there are, but these prove nothing against the general rule. Emi- 
grants from some districts might find all the relief their particular 



340 EMIGRATION. 

cases require, without emigrating beyond the limits of their native 
land. But it is surely not to be argued that obstacles should be 
thrown in the way even of the departure of such persons. Liberty 
to choose for himself the place of his location is one of the dearest 
birth-rights of a free-born man; and the love of country and of 
home, by nature implanted, and strongest in the breasts of the most 
valuable of a nation's peasantry and people, is an abundantly safe 
check against the undue increase of such exceptional cases as have 
been now referred to. 

As to the monetary part of the question, it is of course true that 
a large sum is annually withdrawn by the departure of a numerous 
army of emigrants. But, even without going into a very lengthened 
investigation, it would not be difl&cult to show that the impetus 
given to trade by these very ^' pioneers of civilisation and of liber- 
ty," and by the demand which they aid in creating, in distant lands, 
for the manufactured commodities of the Old Country, very speedily 
restores the amount removed, even with the addition of a profit. 
There is, however, another source of return which is more apt to be 
overlooked, and that is, the pecuniary amounts sent home by pre- 
vious emigrants, in their aficctionate desire to aid the relatives and 
connexions they have left behind to leave the crowded fields of com- 
petition at home, and join them in the less occupied, though per- 
chance ruder, scene to which they had withdrawn themselves. To 
the credit of the warm-hearted sons and daughters of Erin be it said, 
that this is an especial feature in the emigration from the Emerald 
Isle, nearly three-fourths of the whole expense of emigration Irom 
Ireland being defrayed by remittances made by previous emigrants. 
As to the amount actually remitted I find it authentically stated that 
the sum paid in the United States of America, in settlement of the 
passage-money of persons going hence, with the amount remitted on 
the game account through mercantile firms in Liverpool and different 
parts of Ireland, (exclusive of that which passed through the house 
of Baring, Brothers, and Co., of which there was no return,) was in 
the year 1848 upwards of £460,000. 

But the facts last mentioned are only subjects for consideration; 
They enter not into the general argument of whether it is expe- 
dient to adopt measures for the regulation of that tide of emigra- 
tion which has for some years been so steadily increasing. With 
many others, I have arrived at the conclusion, that to do so were 
highly expedient and highly philanthropic. 

But while the government and people of these lands, already 
abundantly supplied with inhabitants, are thus called upon to aid 
in the promotion of the comfortable translation of such of their 
fellow-countrymen as may wish expatriation, those of the lands to 
be supplied from that abundance have even a stronger call, and a 



EMIGRATION. 341 

deeper interest^ in the matter — although this is a view of the ques- 
tion to which much attention has not yet been directed. If emi- 
gration, properly conducted, tends to the relief of a t30 thickly- 
peopled country, immigration properly conducted, will tend to the 
advancement of a nation whose territory is too extensive for its 
population. In both these cases there is the same necessity for 
the adoption of controlling measures. Emigration may weaken 
and impoverish when it should only relieve. Immigration may 
demoralize and debase, when it should only supply the means of 
subjugating the soil. If in either case evil is the issue, the fault 
lies not in encouraging the one or in promoting the other, but in 
the absence of proper measures of regulation or control. As na- 
tives of a land whence numbers of the community are annually 
removing themselves, it is with emigration that the British public 
have to do ; and few among them can fail to rejoice at the spirit 
which has lately manifested itself to adopt measures for the pro- 
tection and safety of those whom difficulties at home, or any other 
causes, may induce to seek a new and distant home in any of 
G-reat Britain's numerous and noble colonies, or even in other 
lands. 



CHAPTEB XYI. 



*' Lives there the man 



Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, 
When home his footsteps he hath turned 
Prom wandering on a foreign strand." 

Scott. 

Trite as is the above quotation, it accurately describes a feeling 
which more or less pervades every one of whose composition love 
of country forms a part. We may talk and write of being cosmo- 
polites, and it is right and proper that we should often feel, and 
generally act as if we were so. But there is an inner shrine for 
love of country and home ; and strangely constituted must be the 
heart that can return to the shores of his native land without some 
feelings of pleasurable emotion. What may be the feelings of 
the man who has expatriated himself for nearly a lifetime, or 
even for a series of years, I cannot pretend to say ; but this I can 
affirm, that it was with much satisfaction, excitement, and plea- 
sant sensation that, the pain of the farewell to my kind friends in 
Boston over, I found myself on the morning after going on board 
the steamship Caledonia, Captain Leitch, bounding onwards in 
the course for the white cliffs of Old England. 

29* 



342 HALIFAX. 

A sail of some forty hours brought us to Halifax, the capital of 
Nova Scotia, which I was agreeably surprised to find both a larger 
and a better built town than the descriptions of others had led me to 
expect. The most favourable view of Halifax is from the sea — as it 
stands on the declivity of a hill of about two hundred and fifty feet 
high — the sides of which are thus seen covered with warehouses, 
dwelling-houses, and public buildings, rearing their heads in rows, 
one over the other, up to the summit. These buildings are inter- 
spersed and enlivened with the spires of the .churches, and of some 
other erections ; and, amongst the whole, a rotunda-looking Dutch 
church and the signal-posts on Citadel Hill stand conspicuous. To 
these elements add the difi"erent batteries — the variety in the style in 
which the houses are built, and of the colours with which they are 
painted ; the rows of trees showing themselves in different parts of 
the town ', the numerous ships moored opposite the dockyard, with 
the establishments and tall shears of the latter ; the merchant vessels 
under sail, or at anchor, or moored alongside the wharves ; the 
wooded and rocky scenery of the background, with the island and 
small town of Dartmouth on the opposite shore — and the reader will 
see at once that there is much in a view of Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
which is calculated to gratify a visitor. 

It fortunately happened that the day of our arrival at Halifax was 
the centenary of the first establishment of the town, by the British 
in 1749, in which year it was founded in order to protect the British 
settlements in Nova Scotia from the attacks of the French and the 
Indians. Preparations had been made for the celebration of the day 
by a salute of a hundred guns, ringing of bells, review of troops, and 
display of fireworks. Brief, therefore, as was our stay in Halifax, 
we were privileged to see it in full dress, and the two hours' ramble 
through its streets presented more incidents to interest and amuse 
than, in other circumstances, could have been anticipated. Silken 
and satin badges, in commemoration of the event, had been prepared ; 
and a colonial bard had composed, printed, and published a Song for 
the Centenary, in lines of great sweetness of versification as well as 
of considerable poetic power, and commencing with the verse, 

" Hail to the day ! -when the Britoiis came over, 
And planted their standard with sea-foam all wet; 
Above and around us their spirits still hover, 
Eejoicing to mark how we honour it yet." 

The public buildings of Halifax are, the Provincial building, which 
is about 140 feet long, by 70 broad, and has a handsome Ionic colon- 
nade; the Government House, a somewhat gloomy-looking but sub- 
stantial stone edifice ; and Dalhousie College, a fine building, erected 
of free stone. These, and the very spacious and superior dockyards, 



ICEBERGS. 343 

whicli cover a space of about fourteen acres, may be said to consti- 
tute the celebrities of the capital of Nova Scotia. 

Leaving Halifax, we found ourselves once more at sea, steaming 
onward, at an increased rate, as the vessel gradually rose in the water 
on the equally gradual consumption of the heavy cargo of coals with 
which she had started from Boston. 

The incidents even of the most agreeable sea voyage do not afford 
much that would interest in the narration ; and if that be the case 
even in a sailing vessel — where there is always the rise and fall and 
direction of the wind as a subject for speculation, and not unfre- 
quently the amusement of fishing for the monsters of the deep, as 
" slow the ship" is tracking her progress through the waters — far 
more true must it be when the voyage is performed in a steamship. 
Still there were one or two occurrences to note even in the voyage in 
question. We saw numerous icebergs, a multitude of whales, and 
enjoyed at least the report that something "as long, sir, as a snake" 
had been seen performing its evolutions in the vicinity of the ship. 

Within two days after leaving Halifax we came in sight of the 
icebergs, and, during that and the following day, a great many such 
sparkling islets were visible from the deck. Not less than eight 
large ones were within near view at one time. The sun shone brightly 
during the forenoon of each day, and it were not easy to conceive a 
more beautiful sight than these masses of ice displayed under the in- 
fluence of his rays. Like most of my fellow-passengers, my attention 
was particularly directed to the appearance of two of them. The 
first, to which we approached within the distance of less than a mile, 
was generally estimated at from 200 to 250 feet high from the sur- 
face of the water — although it is a curious study to observe the va- 
riety of the conclusions as to the size and distance of objects to which 
different members of the same party will arrive when the eye alone 
is the guide. The upper part of the "berg" was of the purest 
white, as if powdered over with snow, while the base was washed 
smooth, clear, and somewhat hollow ; and the dark-blue wave, as it 
surged upon it, shone green, or sparkled into foam, in a singularly 
beautiful manner. When first seen, this ocean-wanderer from the 
northern seas appeared to all on board as bearing an exact resem- 
blance to a lioQ couchant; and this semblance it bore during the 
whole time it continued within view. Ere it faded into distant view, 
the other I have alluded to attracted the general notice. It was con- 
siderably larger in every way than the one already described; and as 
we approached, neared, passed, and receded from it, the appearances 
it assumed were ever varying. At one time the exclamation was, 
How like a perfect fortress of ice ! at another. How strongly it resem- 
bles a Gothic ruin ! These, and the several appearances of moun- 
tainS; churcheS; monasteries^ Swiss mountain and adjacent goatherds' 



344 A SHOAL OF WHALES. 

cottage, all had their advocates, and each could appeal to the beau- 
tiful object itself for some sort of countenance to the similarity which 
his own imagination had been partly instrumental in forming. 

The danger of coming into actual contact with such stern wan- 
derers of the ocean is, of course, much less in a steamship than in 
a sailing one ; but, nevertheless, it seems but too probable that such 
was the mode in which the ill-fated President, and her whole living 
freight of crew and passengers, were hurried into eternity : and 
now, when steamiug in the very track in which, in all probability, 
they were at the time proceeding, and in sight of objects of the 
same species as those which had sunk them to the bottom, most 
natural was it that the memory of the gallant Roberts, and his ill- 
fated crew and passengers, should rise upon the mind with much 
freshness of recollection. So great a length of time has now elapsed 
since the event alluded to occurred, without any certain intelligence 
being obtained on which a competent opinion can be formed as to 
the exact mode in which the President was lost, that there is no 
probability of the truth being known to us, till the day of the reve- 
lation of all things — that day when '' the sea shall give up its dead.'' 
But that the destruction was a violent one, although in open sea, is 
certain ; and it is little less so that it occurred in the manner I have 
supposed; and in the darkness of night, after 

" The sunless day went down 
Over the waste of waters like a veil." 

Even while yet among the icebergs, we saw several whales, but it 
was not till the last of the bergs had faded into thin air that we 
came to the places where it would seem these monsters " most do 
congregate.'^ And there they were in number plentiful — ahead, 
astern, and on every side of us. At some distance they seemed to 
be reposing on the water — their dark backs alone visible, to an 
extent of about the size of the back of ahorse, or occasionally rolling 
over in porpoise-like rolls, as if amusing themselves in lazy gambols. 
As the ship approached nearer — sometimes so near that the bow or 
paddles were within twenty or thirty yards of the huge animals ere 
they appeared to observe us — they threw up their tails three or four, 
or occasionally six feet out of the water, revealed the white underskin 
beneath, and plunged into the deep abyss, to rise and " spout" at 
some considerable distance from the ship. One of them performed 
such-like evolutions within only a few feet of the paddle-box, on 
which about half-a-dozen of the passengers were standing watching 
his motions; and, on comparing notes with several of my fellow- 
passengers, I found the prevalent opinion to be, that, in the course 
of a few hours, we had seen, within near view, fully a hundred of 
these fish-like beasts. Of what particular species they were, I did 



SEA-SERPENT. 345 

not inquire ; and as to the nature of the occupations in which they 
were engaged, they had so much the appearance of enjoying them- 
selves with their young, in their appropriate ocean-home, that I was 
reminded of the facetious description of a whale's probable pleasures, 
put into the mouth of Hogg, in the ^^ Noctes Ambrosianaa'^ of Black- 
xooody where the Shepherd says — " Let me see — I sud hae nae great 
objections to be a whale in the polar seas. Gran' fun to fling a 
boatful of harpooners into the air, or wi' ae thud o' your tail to drive 
in the stern-ports of a Greenlandman. But then whales marry but 
ae wife, and are passionately attached to their offspring. There they 
and I are congenial speerits. Nae fish that swims enjoys so large a 
share o' domestic happiness/' 

It was on the morning after we had passed through the longest 
herd or flock of whales, that the incident occurred regarding the sea- 
serpent, of which casual mention has already been made. But, inas- 
much as the first report of a snake having been seen from the deck 
of the ship, about two o'clock in the morning, degenerated into the 
fact that, at the hour named, one of the passengers, and the officer 
on the watch, had observed a motion in the waters which had a strong 
resemblance to the undulating movement in the waves which would 
be produced by the rapid swimming of a large member of the serpent 
tribe, the matter would not have been worthy of allusion, had it not 
been for the discussion which resulted from it on this queUio vexata^ 
of the probable existence of some such monster — which is not merely 
amphibious, as most serpents are, but which is so provided, by natural 
adaptation, as to be able to make the sea its home, just as is done by 
the whale and other animals, even of the genus mammalia. To judge 
from the statements of some of the parties on board, having reference 
to the personal experience of themselves, or of their own credible 
acquaintances, there would seem to be little doubt of the existence 
of some such inhabitant of the " world of waters." And, after the 
description given of the animal, seen some years ago by a clergyman 
and others in the Hebridean sea — of the one seen several times, and 
by different parties, off the coast of North America, and particularly 
off New York and Boston and the shores of Nova Scotia — of the 
brute clearly seen and minutely described by Captain M'Qhae of the 
Dasdalus and some of the officers of that ship, when cruising in the 
South Atlantic Ocean in 1848, (not to say anything of the more 
ancient, but equally graphic account of Pontoppidan,) — it is surely 
more probable that some such animal exists, than that these various 
parties have either been deceived themselves, or are attempting to 
deceive the rest of mankind. The latter idea is now out of the ques- 
tion, and the former seems equally excluded by the very minuteness 
of the description given by the witnesses themselves. That few such 
animals have been seen makes nothing against the fact of their exist- 



346 HOME. 

ence. They may be few in number, and there may be good and 
sufficient reason why they are so, or why they are but rarely seen 
by human eye, although it may be impossible to adopt the theory, 
that the existing sea-serpent of American fame is " the only ane o^ 
his species noo extant ; and, whether he dees in his bed, or is slain 
by Jonathan, must incur the pain and opprobrium o' defunckin' an 
auld batchelor."* 



The other incidents of the voyage — the sighting and passing Cape 
Clear, the going up Channel, the arrival at Liverpool, and the return 
home, I leave to the imagination of my readers, — thanking them for 
having accompanied me thus far ; and assuring them, that, if they 
should ever be disposed to take such a voyage, and such a round, it 
is my fervent hope that they may derive from it as much benefit, and 
as much pleasure, as it was productive of in the case of 

THE AUTHOR. 

* See Blackwood for Jtily 1827. 



APPENDIX. 



DANISH EMANCIPATION ACT OF 3d JULY, 1848. 

Jeg 

Peter Carl Frederik v. Scholten 

Gior villerligt: 

1. Alle Ufrie paa de danske vestindiske Oer ere fra Dags Dato 
frigivne. 

2. Negerne paa Plantagerne beholde i 3 Maaneder fra Dato 
Brugen af de Huse og Provisionsgrunde, hvoraf de nu ere i 
Besiddelse. 

3. Arbeide betales for Fremtiden efter Overeenskomst, hvorimod 
Allowance ophorer. 

4. Underholdningen af Gamle og Svage, som ere ude af Stand 
til at arbeide, af holdes indtil naermere Bestemmelse af deres forrige 
Eiere. 

Givet under General Gouvernementets Segl og min Haand. 
General Gouvernementet over de danske vestindiske Oer, St, 
Croix den 3die Juli, 1848. 

(L. S.) P. V. Scholten. 

[translation.] 

I 

Peter Charles Frederick v. Scholten, 

Maketh known: 

1. All Unfree in the Danish West India Island are from to-day 
emancipated. 

2. The Estate Negroes retain, for three months from date, the 
use of the houses and provision-grounds, of which they have 
hitherto been possessed. 



348 APPENDIX. 

3. Labour is in future to be paid for by agreement, but allow- 
ance is to cease. 

3. The maintenance of old and infirm, who are not able to 
work, iS; until farther determination, to be furnished by the late 
owners. 

Given under the General Government's Seal and my Hand. 

General Government of the Danish West India Islands, St. 
Croix, the 3d July, 1848. 

(L. S.) P. V. SCHOLTEN. 



B 

Translation of the Provisional Act to regulate the relations be- 
tween the Proprietors of Landed Estates and the Rural Popula- 
tion of Free Labourers. 

I, Peter Hansen, Knight Commander of the Order of Danne- 
brog, the King's Commissioner for and officiating Governor- 
General of the Danish West Indian Islands, 

Make known : That whereas the Ordinance dated 29th July, 
1848, by which yearly contracts for labour on landed estates were 
introduced, has not been duly acted upon ; whereas the interest of 
the proprietors of estates, as well as of the labourers, requires that 
their mutual obligations should be defined; and whereas, on inquiry 
into the practice of the island, and into the private contracts and 
agreements hitherto made, it appears expedient to establish uniform 
rules throughout the island for the guidance of all parties con- 
cerned. It is enacted and ordained : 

Para. 1. All engagements of labourers now domiciled on landed 
estates and receiving wages in money, or in kind, for cultivating 
and working such estates, are to be continued as directed by the 
ordinance of 29th July, 1848, until the first day of October of the 
present year ; and all similar engagements shall in future be made, 
or shall be considered as having been made, for a term of twelve 
months, viz : from the first of October till the first of October, 
year after year. 

Engagements made by heads of families are to include their 
children between five and fifteen years of age, and other relatives 
depending on them and staying with them. 

Para. 2. No labourer engaged as aforesaid in the cultivation of 
the soil, shall be discharged or dismissed from, nor shall be per- 
mitted to dissolve, his or her engagement before the expiration of 



APPENDIX. 349 

the same on the first of October of the present, or of any follow- 
ing year, except in the instances hereafter enumerated : 

A. By mutual agreement of master and labourer before a 
Magistrate. 

B. By order of a Magistrate, on just and equitable cause being 
shown by the parties interested. 

Legal marriage, and the natural tie between mothers and their 
children, shall be deemed by the Magistrate just and legal cause of 
removal from one estate to another. The husband shall have the 
right to be removed to his wife, the wife to her husband, and chil- 
dren under fifteen years of age to their mother, provided no 
objection to employing such individuals shall be made by the owner 
of the estate to which the removal is to take place. 

Para. 3. No engagement of a labourer shall be lawful in future 
unless made in the presence of witnesses and entered in the day- 
book of the estate. 

Fara. 4. Notice to quit service shall be given by the employer, 
as well as by the labourer, at no other period but once a-year in 
the month of August, not before the first, nor after the last day of 
the said month. An entry thereof shall be made in the day- 
book, and an acknowledgment in writing shall be given to the 
labourer. 

The labourer shall have given, or received, legal notice of removal 
from the estate where he serves, before any one can engage his 
services. Otherwise the new contract to be void, and the party 
engaging or tampering with a labourer employed by others will be 
dealt with according to law. 

In case any owner or manager of an estate should dismiss a 
labourer during the year without sufficient cause, or should refuse 
to receive him at the time stipulated, or refuse to grant him a 
passport when due notice of removal has been given, the owner or 
the manager is to pay full damages to the labourer, and to be 
sentenced to a fine not exceeding twenty dollars. 

Pai^a. 5. Labourers employed or rated as first, second, or third 
class labourers, shall perform all the work in the field or about the 
works, or otherwise concerning the estate, which it hitherto has 
been customary for such labourers to perform, according to the 
season. They shall attend faithfully to their work, and willingly 
obey the directions given by the employer or the person appointed 
by him. No labourer shall presume to dictate what work he, or 
she, is to do, or refuse the work he may be ordered to perform, 
unless expressly engaged for some particular work only. If a 
labourer thinks himself aggrieved, he shall not therefore leave the 
work, but in due time apply for redress to the owner of the estate, 
or to the Magistrate. 

30 



350 APPENDIX. 

It is the duty of all labourers on all occasions and at all times 
to protect the property of his employer, to prevent mischief to the 
estate, to apprehend evil-doers, and not to give countenance to or 
conceal unlawful practices. 

Para. 6. The working days to be as usual, only five days in the 
week, and the same days as hitherto. The ordinary work of estates 
is to commence at sunrise and to be finished at sunset every day, 
leaving one hour for breakfast, and two hours at noon, from twelve 
to two o'clock. 

Planters who prefer to begin the work at seven o'clock in the 
morning, making no separate breakfast time, are at liberty to adopt 
this plan, either during the year, or when out of crop. 

The labourers shall be present in due time at the place where 
they are to work. The list to be called and answered regularly ; 
whoever does not answer the list when called, is too late. 

Para. 7. No throwing of grass, or of wood, shall be exacted 
during extra hours, all former agreements to the contrary not- 
withstanding ; but during crop the labourers are expected to 
bring home a bundle of longtops from the field where they are at 
work. 

Cartmen and crookpeople when breaking ofi;, shall attend properly 
to their stock as hitherto usual, 

Po.ra. 8. During crop the mill gang, the crook gang, boilermen, 
firemen, still-men, and any other person employed about the mill 
and the boiling-house, shall continue their work during breakfast 
and noon hours, as hitherto usual; and the boilermen, firemen, 
magass carriers, &c., also during evening hours after sunset, when 
required; but all workmen employed as aforesaid shall be paid an 
extra remuneration for the work done by them in extra hours. 

The boiling-house is to be cleared, the mill to be washed down and 
the magass to be swept up, before the labourers leave the work, as 
hitherto usual. 

The mill is not to turn after six o'clock in the evening, and the 
boiling not to be continued after ten o'clock, except by special per- 
mission of the Governor-General, who then will determine if any, 
and what extra remuneration shall be paid to the labourers. 

Para. 9. The labourers are to receive, until otherwise ordered, 
the following remuneration : 

A. The use of a house, or dwelling-rooms for themselves and their 
children, to be built and repaired by the estate, but to be kept in 
proper order by the labourers. 

B. The use of a piece of provision ground, thirty feet in square as 
usual, for every first and second class labourer ; or if it be standing 
ground up to fifty feet in square. Third class labourers are not en- 
titled to, but may be allowed some provision ground. 



APPENDIX. 351 

G. Weekly wages at the rate of j5fteen cents to every first class 
labourer, of ten cents to every second class labourer, and of five cents 
to every third class labourer, for every working day. 

Where the usual allowance of meal and herrings has been agreed 
on in part of wages, full weekly allowance shall be taken for five 
cents a day, or twenty-five cents a week. 

Nurses losing two hours every working day shall be paid at the rate 
of four full working days in the week. 

• The wages of minors to be paid as usual to their parents, or to the 
person in charge of them. 

Labourers not calling at pay-time personally, or by another autho- 
rized, to wait till next pay-day, unless they were prevented by work- 
ing for the estate. 

No attachment of wages for private debts to be allowed, nor more 
than two-thirds to be deducted for debts to the estate, unless other- 
wise ordered by the magistrate. 

Extra provisions occasionally given during the ordinary working 
hours are not to be claimed as a right, nor to be bargained for. 

Para. 10. Work in extra hours during crop is to be paid as 
follows : — 

To the mill gang and to the crook gang for working through the 
breakfast hour one stiver, and working through noon two stivers per 
day. 

Extra provision is not to be given, except at the option of the la- 
bourers, in place of the money or in part of it. 

The boilermen, firemen, and magass carriers are to receive for all 
days, when the boiling is carried on until late hours, a maximum pay 
of twenty (20) cents per day. No bargaining for extra pay by the 
hour is permitted. 

Labourers working such extra hours only by turns are not to have 
additional payment. 

Para. 11. Tradesmen on estates are considered as engaged to per- 
form the same work as hitherto usual, assisting in the field, carting, 
potting sugar, &c. They shall be rated as first, second, and third 
class labourers, according to their proficiency. Where no definite 
terms have been agreed on previously, the wages of first class trades- 
men, having full work in their trade, are to be twenty (20) cents 
per day. Any existing contract with tradesmen is to continue until 
October next. 

No tradesman is allowed to keep apprentices without the consent 
of the owner of the estate. Such apprentices to be bound for no less 
period than three years, and not to be removed without the permis- 
sion of the magistrate. 

Para. 12. No labourer is obliged to work for others on Saturdays, 
but if they chose to work for hire, it is proper that they should give 



352 APPENDIX. 

their own estate the preference. For a full day's work on Saturday 
there shall not be asked for nor given more than : — 

Twenty (20) cents to a first-class labourer. 

Thirteen (13) cents to a second-class labourer. 

Seven (7) cents to a third-class labourer. 

Work on Saturday may however be ordered by the magistrate as 
a punishment to the labourer, for having absented himself from work 
during the week for one whole day or more, and for having been idle 
during the week; and then the labourer shall not receive more than 
his usual pay for a common day's work. 

Para. 13. All the male labourers, tradesmen included, above 
eighteen years of age, working on an estate, are bound to take the 
usual night-watch by turns, but only once in ten days. Notice to 
be given before noon to break off from work in the afternoon 
with the nurses, and to come to work next day at 8 o'clock. The 
watch to be delivered in the usual manner by nightfall and by sun- 
rise. 

The above rule shall not be compulsory, except where voluntary 
watchmen cannot be obtained at a hire the planters may be willing 
to give, to save the time lost by employing their ordinary labourers 
as watchmen. 

Likewise the male labourers are bound, once a-month, on Sundays 
and holidays, to take the day-watch about the yard, and to act as 
pasture-men, on receiving their usual pay for a week-day's work. 
This rule applies also to the crook-boys. 

All orders about the watches to be duly entered in the day-book 
of the estate. 

Should a labourer, having been duly warned to take the watch, 
not attend, another labourer is to be hired in the place of the absentee 
and at his expense, not however to exceed fifteen cents. The person 
who wilfully leaves the watch or neglects it, is to be reported to the 
magistrate and punished as the cause merits. 

Far a. 14. Labourers wilfully abstaining from work on a working 
day are to forfeit their wages for the day, and will have to pay over 
and above the forfeit a fine which can be lawfully deducted in their 
wages, of seven (7) cents for a first class labourer, five (5) cente for 
a second class labourer, and (2) cents for a third class labourer. 

In crop, on grinding days, when employed about the works, in 
cutting canes or in crook, an additional punishment will be awarded 
for wilful absence and neglect by the magistrate, on complaint being 
made. 

Labourers abstaining from work for half a day, or breaking off 
from work before being dismissed, to forfeit their wages for one day. 

Labourers not coming to work in due time to forfeit half a day's 



APPENDIX. . 353 

Parents keeping their children from work shall be fined instead of 
the children. 

No charge of house-rent is to be made in future on account of 
absence from work, or for the Saturday. 

Para. 15. Labourers wilfully abstaining from work for two or 
three days during the week, or habitually absenting themselveS; or 
working badly and lazily, shall be punished as the case merits, on 
complaint to the magistrate. 

Para. 16. Labourers assaulting any person in authority on the 
estate, or planning and conspiring to retard, or to stop, the work of 
the estate, or uniting to abstain from work, or to break their engage- 
ments, shall be punished according to law on investigation before a 
magistrate. 

Para. 17. Until measures can be adopted for securing medical 
attendance to the labourers, and for regulating the treatment of the 
sick and infirm, it is ordered : 

That infirm persons, unfit for any work, shall as hitherto be main- 
tained on the estates where they are domiciled, and be attended to 
by their next relations. 

That parents or children of such infirm persons shall not remove 
from the estate, leaving them behind, without making provision for 
them to the satisfaction of the owner, or of the magistrate. 

That labourers unable to attend to work on account of illness, 
or on account of having sick children, shall make a report to the 
manager, or any other person in authority on the estate, who, if 
the case appears dangerous, and the sick person destitute, shall cause 
medical assistance to be given. 

That all -sick labourers, willing to remain in the hospital during 
their illness, shall there be attended to at the cost of the estate. 

Para. 18. If a labourer reported sick, shall be at anytime found 
absent from the estate without leave, or is trespassing about the 
estate, or found occupied with work requiring health, he shall be 
considered skulkingly and wilfully absent from work. 

When a labourer pretends illness, and is not apparently sick, it 
shall be his duty to prove his illness by medical certificate. 

Para. 19. Pregnant women shall be at liberty to work with the 
small gang as customary, and when confined not to be called on to 
work for seven weeks after their confinement. 

Young children shall be fed and attended to during the hours of 
work at some proper place, at the cost of the estate. 

Nobody is allowed to stay from work on pretence of attending a 
sick person, except the wife and the mother, in dangerous cases of 
illness. 

Para. 20. It is the duty of the managers to report to the police 
any contagious or suspicious cases of illness and death ; especially 



354 APPENDIX. 

when gross neglect is believed to have taken place, or when children 
have been neglected by their mothers, in order that the guilty per- 
son may be punished according to law. 

Para. 21. The driver or foreman on the estate is to receive in 
wages four and a half dollars monthly, if no other terms have been 
agreed on. The driver may be dismissed at any time during the 
year with the consent of the magistrate. It is the duty of the driver 
to see the work duly performed, to maintain order and peace on the 
estate, during the work and at other times, and to prevent and report 
all offences committed. Should any labourer insult, or use insulting 
language towards him during, or on account of the performance of 
his duties, such person is to be punished according to law. 

Para. 22. No labourer is allowed, without the special permission 
of the owner or manager, to appropriate wood, grass, vegetables, fruits 
and the like, belonging to the estate, nor to appropriate such produce 
from other estates, nor to cut canes, or to burn charcoal. Persons 
making themselves guilty of such offences shall be punished accord- 
ing to law, with fines or imprisonment with hard labour ; and the 
possession of such articles not satisfactorily accounted for, shall be 
sufl&cient evidence of unlawful acquisition. 

Para. 23. All agrements contrary to the above rules are to be null 
and void, and owners and managers of estates convicted of any prac- 
tice tending wilfully to counteract, or avoid, these rules by direct or 
indirect means^ shall be subject to a fine not exceeding 200 dollars. 

Government House, St. Croix, 26th January, 1849. 

P. Hansen. 



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